


Arc Pirates: A Witchy Pirate

by bigkyle990



Category: Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon | Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon (Anime & Manga), My Little Pony, One Piece, RWBY, The Owl House (Cartoon), Twilight Series - All Media Types
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - One Piece Fusion, Alternate Universe - The Owl House Fusion, Crossover, F/F, Mass Crossover, Pirates
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-03
Updated: 2020-11-19
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:40:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 19
Words: 44,286
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27366709
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bigkyle990/pseuds/bigkyle990
Summary: The first in a series of stories following characters of different Universes ending up on the same crew within the One Piece world (which I call Great Blue) and their returns to their own worlds. The first few chapters will cover one or two main events and the rest will be covered in flashbacks as needed.
Relationships: Amity Blight/Luz Noceda
Comments: 42
Kudos: 40





	1. Lost at Sea

“Luz! Hold on kiddo!” Eda yelled as she was holding tightly to her apprentices hand. 

Luz could feel her grip starting to slip as she tried to hold tight onto Eda, the wind attempting to separate them seeming to get stronger with each passing moment. “I’m trying! Eda please don’t let go!” She yelled desperately trying to reach her other hand back, but wasn’t able to because of the winds. 

Things had gone wrong fairly quickly for the small group of rebels that had been attempting to stop Belos’s ‘Day of Unity’ and whatever his plans had been for the portal. They had been able to break through to the portal itself, ready to destroy or simply steal the reassembled door to the human world. When they had attacked though, the fire glyphs set on the machine didn’t exactly break it, but somehow had forced it to start up. 

The next thing they knew, it had broken into a vortex that began trying to draw in those close to it. Which unfortunately for Luz, was herself and Eda. 

Said witch had been able to use her staff and a Plant Glyph to hold herself to the ground, but Luz had no such luck as it started pulling on her far too soon for her to brace herself. Eda had just barely had the time to catch her and try to pull her back. 

“I’m not going too! Just hold o- LUZ!” Eda yelled as she felt her grip finally give way, Luz being drawn towards the portal itself, screaming and trying to seemingly swim her way back towards Eda. 

“Eda!” Was the last Luz could yell out just as she was pulled through and the portal closing shut right after, leaving only the re-damaged door and busted machine that held it. 

No sign of the Boiling Isles singular human witch. 

-

Luz found herself groaning as she tried to pick herself up. Her surroundings felt different, a soft rocking feeling, a warm sun beating down on her, and the smell of salt in the air. She slowly pulled herself up on her hands and knees as she tried to look around. 

Only to shut her eyes quickly from the bright light of the sun invading her vision. After a moment she slowly reopened them and looked on shocked. 

It looked like she was in the middle of the ocean, in a small dingy of a boat. Was she back in the human world? If so, why was she in the ocean and not by the shack that the portal normally leads to? 

She didn’t have much time to process things just as a dark shadow rose up behind her and she looked back slowly, only to scream as the massive form of some kind of sea monster tried to crash down on her, maw gaping wide to swallow her whole. 

Just as it came down, she screamed and felt a rush of wind. 

First one like she was falling and then a new one holding her up. 

“You know,” started the voice of a slightly older male as he approached. “If you’re going to have nightmares, it’s best not to take a nap on the figure head, Noceda.” He said with a slight amusement in his voice. 

Luz’s eyes shot open as she looked towards the voice, finding herself just off the side of the ship, a small vortex of winds holding her up directly over the ocean. “Right… Sorry, thanks for the save Jaune.” She chuckled weakly as she was brought back onto ship. 

The man before her was a tall blond man with blue eyes, who’s chest and part of his face was currently wrapped in bandages, covering fresh wounds from a previous engagement with a rather powerful foe. He was wearing an open black dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, along with a pair of blue long pants held up by a red sash around his waist. Over his shoulders was a long blue captain’s coat with golden trimmings and tucked into his belt was a sheathed longsword with black and gold accents on the hilt and the pommel in the shape of a snarling wolf head. 

He was one, Jaune “Blood Wind” Arc, captain of the Arc Pirates, to which Luz currently belonged, and with a firm bounty of 500 million berries. As well as the wielder of the Paramecia Vortex Vortex Devil fruit, that gave him the power to control wind currents at a simple thought. 

“Any time.” he waved off her thanks. “So, same nightmare?” He asked with some concern as he leaned against the bulkhead of the ship. 

Luz sighed as she sat on the deck and nodded. She was far from the young 14 year old girl that Jaune and his budding crew had found and saved in the waters of the North Blue just 4 years ago. Now a young adult of 18, she stood much taller than she had before, both literally and figuratively. While not as tall as her captain, she was close, only about a head shorter then himself, her hair had grown out to be just past her shoulders but still kept the slightly gravity defying effect it had always had. Sticking up in ways that normally shouldn’t be possible, but around the world of Great Blue, it was hardly the weirdest. She had traded out her blue and white hoodie for a green jacket over a blue and white striped shirt underneath, tucked into a pair of dark blue shorts and her normal black leggings still coming out underneath. 

Much like her captain, she had made a name for herself on these seas, becoming known as “Wild Witch” Noceda. Thanks in part to what she’d picked up from Eda, but also eating a rather powerful paramecia devil fruit of her own, known as the Mage Mage fruit. It’s abilities let her continue to use her glyphs from the Boiling Isles, but without the need for paper or the Titan’s influence to do so. 

That power along with her own wit and cunning, had earned her an ample bounty of 300 million of her own. 

She sighed at the question and nodded. “Yeah, I know it’s been a long time since that day, but I can’t help thinking and even dreaming about it… How do you guys cope?” She asked, looking up, only to stop as she felt Jaune’s hand placed on the top of her head in a comforting manner. 

“Bout the same as you honestly,” He said with a small smile. “We keep moving forward and hope we can find our way back home someday. That’s the best we can do right now.” 

Luz nodded as she leaned against the ship’s walls, pulling her knees up to comfort herself a bit more. 

If there was one thing she was thankful for about this crew, was that it’s main group was made up of people all in similar situations to herself. Each one was from some other world or strange universe that was nothing like this one. Some more simple like the human world from her home, some far stranger than even Great Blue could hope to be. 

It gave them all something to bond over, even with how different most of them were and how little they each wanted to take orders, they all had that one aspect in common. Weirdly enough, it was all they needed to keep together as they searched for ways back.

She looked up to Jaune with a slight bit of a smirk on her face. “So, should you really be up and about right now? Your fight with Sakasuki wasn’t that long ago and I don’t think that Bella would be happy to know you’re moving around with those wounds.” 

Jaune chuckled and shrugged. “I probably shouldn’t, but what the doc don’t know won’t hurt he-” 

“WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU ARC!?” Came the loud voice of the ship’s doctor, one Bella Swan came yelling and crashing out of the ship's sick bay. 

“Me, it can hurt me…” Jaune finished, a sense of dread washing over him as he quickly ran to get away as Luz laughed at him being chased by the young brown haired woman in a doctor’s coat. 

“Get back here and get back in bed, damn it! Your burns haven’t healed yet!” Bella yelled as she ran by with new bandages in hand, intent on tying the man to the medical bed this time. 

Luz grinned watching them running around the ship, barreling over a few of the grunts trying to do their day to day upkeep. “Well, I guess I can’t be mad with the new weird family I ended up with.” She said as she stood and started looking out to the, momentarily calm, waters of the New World. “I’ll still find my way home… I want to see everyone again.” She said softly as she held up a hand, creating a light glyph with a simple motion and conjuring a small mote of light. With a light tap, she sent it floating away from the ship and turned to go help with things around her new home.


	2. The Payback War

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And hear we have an event one year later, the Arc Crew getting involved in one of the more important events in the One Piece world, following just Luz’s side of course. 
> 
> There is some blood and character death(not anyone people actually care about, hah) in this one, so please beware. It’s not to graphic, but still feel it’s best to warn you.

**One year later**

The seas of the New World were a turbulent place on any normal day. Unpredictable weather, swarms of monsters deep beneath it’s sapphire waters, and chaotic ocean currents abound at any given time between its many islands. 

Today however, a far more chaotic event is taking place near the beginning of this half of the Grand Line. 

**Boom! Boom! Boom!**

The crashing water as cannon fire rang out among the waves of the sea, a pitched battle taking place between a group known as the Blackbeard pirates against the remnants of the Whitebeard Pirates and The Arc Pirates. The latter joined in after the pair of crews began their battle. 

Luz dodged past a spear strike and swung her hands out, twisting them and forming a glowing red glyph before she shot her hand out. The glyph began to glow brighter, spiralling in on itself before releasing a burst of flame on her attacking opponent, who quickly dodged out of the way and laughed. 

“Murunffuffuffu, you are one fiery young woman.” One Caterina Devon laughed as she landed a bit aways on the massive logs of the Blackbeard Crew’s ship and spinning her spear. “Your head will make a wonderful start to my new collection!” She smirked charging in again in an effort to drive her spear into the young Wild Witch, only to be met by the stopping force of a new Glyph. One that not only halted her attack, but blew the massive 11 foot woman backward. 

“Yeah right, like I’m gonna let you get anywhere near my head, you crazy bitch!” Luz yelled, clearing out the Impact Glyph and slamming her hands down on the ship below her. A new glyph formed, a large green one, causing the wood beneath to splinter and grow into new branches that shot out, attempting to ensnare the woman.

She watched, annoyed, as Devon dodged between the branches easily. “Haki, I should have guessed…” Luz growled, before her own senses tipped her off and she swung up a hand, calling up a shield between her and the loud clang of a blade. “Damn it Vista! Keep your opponent on your side of things!” Luz yelled. 

She was currently holding back a large looking man in a jailor hat and clothing, along with a still smoking cigar in his mouth. The man grinned pushing against her shield, something she had to reinforce by putting her own Armament Haki into it, turning the shield from it’s normal dull orangish color, to a far darker orange. 

Her struggle didn’t have to last long though, as a wide chested man dressed in a top hat, cape, and fine looking clothing dashed in with his blades, swiping at her aggressor and causing him to retreat back, landing next to Devon who wasn’t far away. “My apologies, Wild Witch.” The new man grinned as Luz’s shield fell and she got up, ready for the next attack. “This Shiryu of the Rain is a much more slippery opponent than I expected. He was able to distract me just enough to get away.”

“No worries Vista.” Luz said, flinging her hands out as she coated one in flame and the other in ice, gripping them both to create blades of each element. “It feels like everyone on this asshole’s crew is good at being a bit tricky.” 

She paused as they all heard a beasts roar and a large man’s howl of pain, looking over to see the massive form of Sanjuan Wolf being bombarded by a large purple and green dragon’s flames. “Okay, except the one Spike is fighting right now, that guy seems a bit slow in the head.” 

“Yes, Wolf was never well known for being a clever man. Still.” Vista stated as he focused on their enemies. “I thank you and your crew for standing with us in this fight. I fear we would not be fairing as well if you hadn’t stepped in.” 

“Don’t thank me, thank Jaune, he was on the old man’s crew before splitting off to make his own, said that he was still family and couldn’t let what Teach did go unpunished.” Luz said, before charging back into the fight itself. 

“Haha! Well said, glad Arc never truly left us!” Vista grinned, charging in right after her. 

The two took to fighting together on this from now on. Working their best to keep up with each other and put the pressure on their opponents. 

Devon was more of a mind to be cautious as the two showed signs of working together, Shiryu deciding to charge in and beginning to battle the two. Vista would quickly come in with his blades, looking to occupy the former Jailor of Impel Down as Luz worked to get around his guard, swinging her blades of ice and fire on the man. Though she made sure to keep her eye on Devon. 

A smart plan as the tall woman attempted to attack them from behind multiple times, either blocked by Vista’s blades or Luz, the latter nearly burning her spear in her hands and even able to form ice around her hands. Painfully sticking it to her grip. 

That was able to get Devon off the fight long enough for both Luz and Vista to press on Shiryu much more fiercely. Driving him back as he found himself covered in cuts, burns, and even froze parts of his joints. “You think this will end me! I survived far worse in Impel Down, you fools.” He growled, adrenaline pushing him further as he began to charge them. 

Luz moved forward first, hand glowing an icy blue as she quickly drew a large Ice glyph in the air and moved out of the way. Right behind her Vista came forward blades crossed in front of him, before swinging them out towards the Glyph and releasing an air pressure blade that broke into what looked like a flurry of rose petals. When they came into contact with Luz’s glyph, they froze immediately, becoming a flurry of frozen petals of ice that shot towards Shiryu at a speed he couldn’t dodge. 

The man’s eyes widened as he tried to block as many as he could with his own blade. Slashing and blocking at each that came in, but they were far too fast for him to keep up with and began to feel the frozen blades dig into his body. Biting back a scream he crossed his arms over his head, only to feel them start to stiffen. 

The blades were freezing him from the inside, his body quickly becoming more rigid with each passing second, until he could no longer move. He stood, frozen in place and dead to the world. 

Vista panted a bit and smirked. “Not bad Noceda, like that little combo you came up with…” He stated with a light grin as he tried to catch his breath from the fight. 

“Thanks, thought it would be effective.” She grinned, only for both of them to be shocked as Luz suddenly found a spear run through her stomach and coughing up blood. 

“Murun Ffu Ffu Ffu… A pretty thing like you…” Devon smirked as she lifted Luz off the deck of the ship they had been battling on, savoring the look of pain and anguish on her face. 

“Noceda!” Vista yelled, charging to save the young woman, only to be bashed aside by said woman’s body being swung into him. 

“Keep out of this ‘Flower Sword’.” Devon smirked before looking back to Luz. 

Luz panted, grunting in pain as she gripped the shaft of the spear and glared at Devon. “I thought… You… Wanted my… Head…” She spat out, venom drenching her words. 

“Oh I do, make no mistake.” The taller woman drew her in closer, a sick smile growing across her face. “I just don’t want to ruin it before I can collect it… Murun, Ffu, Ffu, Ffu...” 

Luz looked up to her, eyes still showing fight in them as she grinned, a small trickle of blood coming from the corner of her mouth. “Too bad… You should have aimed higher…” She held up her hand, a glowing yellow glyph having formed that she quickly crushed just as it became coated in Haki. “Sparking…” Lightning shot from the shattered glyph, shooting into the air, shocking Devon enough that she let go of her weapon, Ice having been removed by force. 

“Ragnarok.” Luz finished as a mass of lightning coated black with her own Haki shot down, striking Devon and making the woman scream in absolute pain as 300 million volts shot through her body, scorching the wood of the deck underneath her.

When the strike ended, Devon’s body was shown, completely blackened by the heat of the strike and crumpling down to the deck. 

Another member of the Blackbeard Pirates was gone. 

Luz picked herself up as Vista made his way over to her, watching as she coated her arm in haki and broke off the long end of the spear. “Best to keep that in for now… Don’t want you bleeding out before we get you to a doctor.” He said with a slight chuckle and helped her to her feet. 

“Yeah… Bella wouldn’t be happy about that…” Luz giggled weakly, coughing up more blood from the action. “Ugh, this sucks… But better than dead I guess…” 

“That it is, now hold on for me, not unwounded myself…” Vista grinned as they made their way for a doctor. 

_

Time passed and the remains of the war came to an end. Luz herself had been sidelined by her injuries for the remainder, but she knew she did well in how things had gone for her. The remaining members of the Blackbeard pirates had been killed, both Jaune and Marco the Phoenix taking “Blackbeard” Teach’s head in its final moments. 

What forces that remained retreated upon seeing their captain and all their officers slain. Though that didn’t leave their side without it’s losses. Something that would be mourned later, but for now they celebrated their win. 

A battle that only lasted a single day, but still held ramifications for the lands of the New World on who would stand above others. History would later name this battle the Payback War. 

A war started by the remnants of the Whitebeard pirates attacking the Blackbeard pirates in a drive for vengeance for the death of their late captain Edward Newgate. A war that they would have lost, had it not been for the intervention and alliance of the Arc Crew to turn the tides of fate in their favor.


	3. Relaxation and Remembrance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A second jump in time, while not a major event, contains a good bit of fluff and some exposition of things that happened since the Payback War. This will also be last part taking place on Great Blue, so expect a return to the Boiling Isles coming next

About a year and a half had passed since the events of the Payback War and Luz found herself in a rather rare occasion of calm and relaxation on a Summer island. She was currently relaxing on the beach of the island Soleil, a rather nice resort-like island that was under the crew’s protection, due to its own resources being a usual target for pirates and the World Government. The island locals didn’t want to be part of the WG, much to the government’s own annoyance, and thus had originally looked to Whitebeard’s Crew for protection from most outside forces. With the old man dead and his crew long since disbanded after the war, Jaune had made the choice to try and claim as much of Whitebeard’s old territory as they could. Before Others could get to it. 

They hadn’t been able to get to everything, Luz had some regret that they let Big Mom get to Fishman Island before they could, but regardless, they had been able to claim quite a bit. This had been the reason why things had been so busy for the last year or so. Not only was the crew starting to grow, as needed to make sure they could protect the islands they’d claimed, but the main crew had been turned into Commanders for divisions of the crew itself. 

Each now held their own ship to command and direct, normally operating in areas close to their territory to insure they could get to them if an attack should happen. Luz herself had been named the Fifth Division Commander and given a mass of pirates to command herself. 

It was nice to know that she was trusted, but man was it a lot of work to keep things running smoothly when she was away from the flagship and on her own. While her ship the “Owl Lady”, being a Galleon, was nice and spacious, it was just nice to be able to kick up her feet and relax for once. 

“Ah, so this is where you’ve been hiding.” Came a voice from behind her and a swift slap of a newspaper onto her face. “Been looking all over for you Luzy.” The voice continued as it made itself even more known by sitting right into her lap. 

Luz grunted from the sudden weight and pulled the newspaper down from her face with a bit of a disgruntled look. “Usagi… I’m relaxing here, it’s my day off.” She grumbled good naturedly, not at all unhappy to see her blond haired fellow commander and head navigator in her lap.

Even among most of the other members of the main crew, Usagi was an enigma of her own.

She was the Third Division Commander of the crew and currently stood at a bounty of 1.6 billion. A young blond woman, about the same age as Luz was now, her hair was cut much shorter than when they had first met 6 and half years ago. It now being cut to just past her shoulder blades, rather than being almost as long as the ship’s main mast. She may have only been half joking about that. She also liked to dress much more casually, wearing a simple silver tube top underneath a light blue jacket that was cut off at the midsection along with a pair of long jeans normally. 

At the moment of sitting on Luz’s lap, she was only wearing her jacket from her normal attire, the rest replaced with a silver swimsuit, not that she could go deep in the water, being a devil fruit user herself. She held a rather powerful Logia devil fruit called the Crystal Crystal Fruit, it’s powers allowing her to create, control, and become crystal itself. A power that made her effectively intangible to anyone that couldn’t use Haki or didn’t know her weakness. 

Of course, none of that was the strange part about Usagi herself. No, the strange thing was that unlike the rest of the main crew, she hadn’t been pulled here by some strange force or power. Rather, she had been reborn here after previously being a princess of some far off kingdom known as the Moon Kingdom, and having gone by the name Serenity until this lifetime where she had been given the name Usagi. Some galaxy spanning kingdom that covered all but one planet in the system and fell because of an outside force. A spell had been cast on the princesses of the kingdom to have them reincarnated on a single planet, but had somehow messed up and had her reincarnated on Great Blue instead. 

It was nearly unbelievable, if she wasn’t also able to use some magic of her own and been on a crew of equally odd individuals. 

“So, what’s this about exactly, Princesa?” Luz asked, moving the paper to the side instinctively as she knew the blond was going to snuggle her in the beach chair they now shared. 

As Usagi made herself comfortable next to Luz, she held the other side of the paper open for them both to read. “Well, Jaune thought you’d be interested to see today’s big news.” She grinned. 

The darker haired woman blinked as she looked up to the headline and couldn’t help but laugh. 

The headline read: **Donflamingo Falls!!**

It then went into an article about how it was the alliance formed between “Straw Hat” Luffy of the Straw Hat Pirates and “Surgeon of Death” Law of the Heart Pirates, that had taken down the powerful warlord and freed a country that he had taken over and declared himself king. At least that’s the information that was on the surface of the situation. 

“So they’re targeting Kaido, huh? Man the Worst Generation really does love to make noise.” Luz grinned as she read over the article. Like most higher level pirate crews, Luz and hers knew of Donflamingo’s black market activities. The man went by Joker, selling weapons, slaves, the works, all with protection from the government and one of the Four Emperors of the Sea, “King of Beasts” Kaido. 

“Seems that way,” Usagi giggled “but that’s not it, there’s word that back on Fishman Island, Straw Hat caused a bit of a ruckus there. He practically declared war with Big Mom to take Fishman Island as his territory instead. That was like a week ago” 

Luz let out another laugh and shook her head. “Straw Hat really does know how to start things doesn’t he? Next thing you know, he may come after us.” She grinned, continuing to read the article.

It was fairly recent, but Jaune had been named the fourth Emperor of the Sea, taking the place Whitebeard had once held due to their increased territory in not only the second half of the Grand line, but even a few in the first half as well. 

This meant that he was considered on the same level as the likes of Kaido, Charlotte “Big Mom” Linlin, and “Red-haired” Shanks in terms of threat to the World Government. 

Usagi shrugged at that. “You never know, that could be his goal honestly, the guy is nuts.” She said honestly. 

“That he is, that whole crew is pretty nuts from the stories you hear. They’re gonna turn this whole world on its head, no doubt about it. And I for one hope I get to be there when it happens.” Luz grinned as she set the paper aside and went back to relaxing in the sun.


	4. A Pirate's Arrival

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And we return to the Boiling Isles! Anything else that happened on Great Blue will be in flashback from this point forward.

Amity held back a sigh as she made the last few checks on herself before the door to Emperor Belos’s throne room. The now 21 year old young woman stood, wrapped in a tight black dress, under the cloak of the head of the Emperor’s Coven. She straightened out her now unbound hair, still dyed green as it always was, but now in more of an undercut style with her hair swept to the right side of her face. Her roots were already starting to show again, it would be time to redye it soon. The one last check was a light check of her staff, a Palismen she was lucky enough to have crafted herself, a regal looking Phoenix that she’d named Azula. It was a name of a character that Luz had told her about from some human show. It felt fitting. 

She could already hear the unnerving beat of the Titan’s Heart within, reminding all of the power the man had. Much like the last 7 years, she was never used to how things had changed for her life. Ever since Luz had been dragged through the Portal back to the human world, things had grown slightly darker for her. Oh she’d kept contact with the friends she’d made thanks to the human, Willow was thriving as not only a botanist, but had worked her way to the head of the Plant Coven. It surprised everyone but those closest to her. Gus was able to work his way into a high ranking member of the Illusion Coven, only barely beaten out by Amity’s own siblings for the higher spots. 

She herself had gone into the Emperor’s Coven just as her family had wanted and worked her way to the top. It had plenty of benefits, but it’s fair share of annoyances and problems themselves. 

With one last sigh she centered herself and entered into the Chamber. 

“Ah… Amity, good to see you arrive so soon.” Came the eerie yet oddly charismatic voice of the Emperor from his throne. 

Amity approached and took a knee before Belos, bowing her head. “I came as soon as I was called, how may I serve you sir?” 

“A moment on that Amity,” Belos raised his hand and turned back to the other occupants in the room, “continue with your report.” He ordered. 

Another member of the coven cleared their throat, one that Amity knew came from the research team within the coven. “Of course, sire. Well, as you know, the portal to the human world had been in a dormant state since the rebellion attack on the Day of Unity over 7 years ago. We’ve been working to restore power to it since then, with little results.” They paused as they all heard the Titan’s Heart beating faster, signifying Belos’s annoyance. “That was, until about two hours ago when we had an incident…” 

Amity blinked. “An incident? What happened?” She asked curiously, a small spark of hope that maybe the portal was working. Sure it would be good for her Emperor, but it could let her see…

“Yes, while working on it, the systems within the machine attached to the portal suddenly shot to life, opening it for just a brief moment and something came out. Unfortunately we can’t say what it was, as it came out like a cannon shot and broke through the walls of the lab, clear out of the castle itself. It was… An interesting experience to say the least.” They stated, trying to cut the slight tension in the room with some humor. 

“I would assume so.” Belos stated, bringing the tension right back, as the researcher froze up a bit. “Then the portal is operational again?” He asked, expecting an affirmative. 

The researcher gulped and shook their head slowly. “N-no sire… Um, whatever that anomaly was that activated it, damaged the portal further… It may not be salva-” They were cut off by standing of Belos and the much faster beating of the heart. 

“So you have nothing for me but failure, is that it?” He asked, a calm tone still coming from him, but it dripped with anger and venom. “Tell me, what does this do for my Day of Unity?” He asked, expecting a very quick answer. 

“W-well… Um, we detected where the anomaly landed… It’s.. It arrived just outside of Bonesborough! By the-” 

Belos sat back down and sigh. “The Owl House… Of course.” He said holding a hand to his mask. 

Amity stood by for the moment, unsure of how to approach this situation, she was about to try and offer to send someone to check it out, but found herself cut off. 

“Amity, I want you to take a group with you and go to the Owl House, see if you can get information on what came through.” Belos ordered. 

“At once sir. Do...do you want the sisters captured?” Amity asked, she knew they had been pardoned despite not joining any covens due to their lack of magic beyond the use of glyphs. Did he intend to have them arrested?

“Only if they choose to resist and hide what arrived. I feel whatever it might be will be important to finally obtaining my goals. Now go.” 

“Yes sir.” She stood, turning on her heel and quickly heading out to gather a team. It was time to see the Clawthorn sisters it seemed. 

_

**Two hours earlier, at the Owl House**

The day had been somewhat normal for the residents of the Owl House. It was still early morning for them, Eda was busy trying to wake up with her normal cup of Apple Blood, Lilith was busy reading the morning paper as she prepared lesson plans for her class at Hexside on Glyphs and Glyph Magic, and King was busy with his morning nap in her lap. 

Yes, a perfectly normal morning for the group, at least until a sudden rapping on the door causing all three to jump at the noise.

Eda grumbled as she cleaned some of the apple blood that splashed into her face from the sudden scare and looked to the door. “Hooty! What are you doing making such a loud racket suddenly!?” She growled at her door, only to get no answer. “Hooty, what is going on?” She stood from her spot on the couch and made her way over, only to pause as the door opened. 

All three, four if you included a surprisingly shocked silent Hooty, were witness to a figure standing in the doorway.

The tall form of a dark skinned, black haired woman, human judging by the round ears that poked out of her long hair. She was panting in a labored way as she held her side. Covered in blood, her clothing damaged, and plenty of opened wounds. 

Despite all this, the woman smiled at them. “I… Hi… I’m… Home…” Was all she said before collapsing onto the floor, blood slowly pooling from her wounds as exhaustion finally took its toll.

The shock dissolved from Eda first, rushing over to her and starting to try and move her as best as she could. “Lily, go get the med kit! Now!” She ordered her older sister, who shot up quickly to go and get said kit. 

Eda brought the wounded woman over to the couch and laid her across it, it was already red, blood wasn’t gonna change that color much, as King moved out of the way. 

“Eda, is...is that?” King asked, the scent of the woman was so familiar, slightly different as she smelled heavily of salt under all the blood and sweat, but familiar. 

Eda nodded as she brushed a bit of the young woman’s hair aside to get a better look at her face. “Yeah… I think so... “ She said softly, staring at her face. “Luz.. Kiddo, what happened to you…?” She asked as Lilith returned with the med kit and the two started work on patching her up as best as they could


	5. Raid on the Owl House

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And thus Luz makes herself known to some key figures to the Boiling Isles, this one was a lot of fun to write, and I hope y’all enjoy the fight scene!

Luz gave a soft groan as she felt herself coming to. Her eyes stayed closed as she thought of the last things she could remember happening. 

The war, she was fighting against the newest creations of Dr. Vegapunk, she fell into the ocean after taking too many hits, and then… A light? Yeah a light, a familiar light that brought her to Great Blue in the first place opened up. There was a rush of motion and she was in the middle of a forest. The one outside of Bonesborourgh, when she noticed that, she dragged herself down a path that she remembered from a long time ago and found the house… 

No. No, it had to have been some kind of dream, she died in that war, drowned like any devil fruit user had. Whatever that was it had to have been fake, at most she was fished out of the ocean and may be in Impel Down right now.. 

That had to be it, it was the only right way to think of things, she would open her eyes and see the inside of a cell that she would spend the rest of her life in. 

“Best to get that over with…” She mumbled weekly and opened her eyes slowly. 

What she saw though, wasn’t the inside of a cell, no it was a sight she had dreamed of for the past 7 years. 

The familiar roof of the living room, it’s glowing marking of some kind of owl demon, turning her head to the side showed junk piled up all over the place. It was… It really was the Owl House! 

She tried to sit up quickly, but took in a sharp intake of air as pain shot through her body and she grabbed her stomach. It was then she noticed that she was nearly completely covered in bandages, not exactly fresh, a few hours at least judging by the amount of blood that had soaked into them. That wasn’t the thing that jumped out to her the most though, no, there were glyphs on her bandages. The unmistakable glyphs of the Healing Coven dotted over her vital areas, pumping healing magic into her body to help speed up the process. 

“I… I really am back? How? Why now, after all this time…?” She was about to tear up, either out of sheer joy at being back or fear that it really was just some kind of sick dream. That didn’t get to last though as she remembered. “Wait! The War? The others!? Are the-” 

Boom! 

Her head shot towards the front door as the sounds of a fight and screaming could be heard right outside. Was it Eda? Was she fighting someone? 

Luz didn’t take much time to think about it as she slowly stood up, grabbing her jacket that was tossed nearby, still covered in blood, and threw it over her shoulders. She didn’t know what was happening outside, but she wasn’t about to leave it be and stay on the couch. 

-

**Moment’s before**

“Edalyn, we need to get her to an actual hospital.” Lilith continued trying to push to her sister, as she had for the last hour and half. “We don’t have what we need to properly take care of her here, I don’t think even when I was in the coven I’d seen wounds this bad.” She paused, looking to the sleeping form of the returned human. “Just on the surface things look terrible, she’s got multiple lacerations, some actual holes in her body that also look like they were burned in, and I don’t even need a medical scanning spell to see that she’s probably got a few shattered ribs. She needs more powerful healing magic and a real doctor.” 

Eda growled and glared at her sister. “You think I don’t know that!? I’m trying to figure out the best way to do it, she’s come back to the Isles, Lilly. We have to be careful that the Emperor’s Coven doesn’t find out, who knows what they’d do if they did. By the Titan Lilly, I just got her back, I… I don’t want her taken away again.” Her voice cracked for a moment, the thought of Luz finally being back was still dawning on her and to have that taken away not long after… It might actually kill her. 

Lilith’s face softened for a moment and she sighed. “Edalyn… I understand, and we’ll figure this out.” She placed a hand on her sister’s shoulder and gave a reassuring smile. 

Eda was about to reply when both heard a sudden slamming of something outside and their heads shot towards the front door. They shared a look for a moment before heading out quickly. 

-

The two came out to quiet the sight, a large number of Emperor’s Coven soldiers right outside, with Hooty already having beaten up a few, and the slightly annoyed and amused looking visage of one Amity Blight. 

Amity noticed the sisters coming out of the house and sighed. “Finally, Hooty wasn’t exactly being accommodating today.”

“Yeah, he doesn’t like when guests show up in mass. What do you want, Blight?” Eda asked with a bit of a glare at the young woman, fearing the reason why the Coven leader was here.

“What can we do for you, Amity? I hope things aren’t going to become a problem.” Lilith stated as she stood beside Eda. 

Amity nodded, stepping forward. “I’m hoping not as well, but we are looking for something. You see about 2 hours ago, something came out of the Research and Development department and it’s landing was here in the forest. We’re looking for what that may have been.” 

“Well we don’t know anything about it, things have been calm all day here.” Eda easily lied, she had gotten very good at that over the years. 

“I’d be happy to believe you, Eda, I honestly would. If it wasn’t for the person sized crater and trail that led us right to the Owl house.” Amity stated, pointing to the very obvious trail of blood that led up to the door, even some bloodstains left behind on Hooty’s door itself, from where Luz had banged on it before. 

Both women gave just the slightest flinch at that being pointed out, but were able to hide it from them. “Look, I get what you’re saying, but whatever it was, didn’t come in the house. It must have gone somewhere else, so leave. You know I don’t like you Emperor thugs on my property.” Eda glared, reaffirming her lie to protect her injured human. 

“If that’s the case, you won’t mind my men doing a search then.” Amity said simply as she turned to one nearby and gave a nod for them to go check the house. 

Said soldier nodded and started towards the door, cautious of Hooty who was waiting for Eda’s word at the moment. They got past Hooty and were getting closer to the door, as they reached for the nob. 

**CRACK!**

They found their head on the receiving end of a swift smack from an angered Eda and her staff, sending them right back to the group and crashing with a groan. The other soldiers quickly called up or drew weapons, ready to attack. 

“As a matter of fact, I do mind. Now leave. There’s nothing in here for you.” The Owl Lady glared as she pulled out some glyph papers and Lilith brought out her own staff and papers. 

Amity sighed, honestly regretting what she would have to do now. “I wish you would just cooperate sometimes…” She mumbled before giving a stern face. “Arrest them and search the house.” 

Her soldiers all gave battle cries as they charged the two. 

-

The fight had been going for a short time, Eda and Lilith able to keep the soldiers back for the most part. Both had become extremely proficient with Glyph magic rather quickly and that talent only grew as time went on. 

Eda had a group currently bound in a mass of thorny vines, while Lilith was easily stopping further advances with earth glyphs that shattered the ground under their feet. 

Of course that didn’t mean they could hold out forever, especially if Amity was to get into the fray. 

Lilith knew well of what Amity’s potential as a witch was when she was younger and time only helped prove that. As of this moment, even with what binding on her magic the Emperor’s coven did, Amity held a very clear title as the most powerful Witch on the Boiling Isles, second only to Belos himself. Possibly far better if she wasn’t restricted. 

They needed to find a way to get the group to retreat and make a plan. 

The two continued until they had been forced together and an explosion of fire blasted them back. 

Amity glared. “Just come quietly! We can get this over with and you’ll be let go, I promise.” She tried to reason. 

“Yeah right! Like we can trust Belos to let u-” Eda had started, but froze as they all heard the door opening. “No…” She looked back, hoping it was going to be King. 

The world froze for a moment for Amity as she saw the figure exiting the house. She had changed, older, far more developed and even mature looking in a way. The resemblance was unmistakable though as the dark skinned human exited the house, covered in bandages and seeming to be limping just slightly. “L-luz…?” Amity whispered, half expecting this to suddenly be a dream. 

“Kid, go back inside, you’re still hurt!” Eda yelled as Luz walked past her and Lilith, giving her a small smile as she did. 

“It’s great to see you again, Eda.” Luz smiled, before looking back at the situation and glaring. “I’m giving you a fair warning now. Leave and there won’t be much trouble.” Was all she said, though her visage was that of a heavily injured person, some actually took a slight step back at her warning.

“Don’t you mock us!” One bold soldier wielding magic created chains yelled. “You’re just some injured person and judging by the ears,” they took a moment to spin the chain and launch it towards her, it extended out to ensnare Luz, “you’re the one we’re looking for anyway!” 

Luz sighed, stupid people would exist no matter what world you were in. This was her thought as she closed her eyes and tilted to the side, letting the chain pass her and grabbing onto it. It pulled tight for a moment and she gave a heavy tug, pulling it, and the grunt closer her quickly. 

“WHAT!” They yelled as they were suddenly flying at the bandaged human. 

Said human let go of the chain and drew back her fist, for a moment it looked like it was heating up, like metal left in an open flame, before suddenly solidifying with a black sheen, a glint of purple coming off of it as it caught the light. 

Just as the grunt came in closer, she buried her fist into their chest, launching them back with enough force that they took out a few other grunts and trees a good couple feet back. Luz stood back up and looked to the rest, an eyebrow raised to see if there would be more takers. 

Most stood stunned for a moment, before another grunt yelled out. “Hit her from a distance, we can’t let down the Emperor!” 

A few gave a yell of unity as they all started prepping spells, launching volleys of fire, ice, and lightning towards the human. 

“That’ll work to then.” Luz smirked as she raised her arm and quickly drew a glyph in the air, shocking most that were paying attention. 

The Glyph she formed was black, with what looked like six lines swirling into each other, it was a glyph not yet seen on the isles. Once completed, she spread her fingers out, directing the glyph around and first moving it in the path of the fire. 

Once it struck, instead of spreading out, the glyph began to spiral and suck in the flames quickly. Once done it gave a glow and expanded in size. This was the same for each of the other spells launched her way, growing larger with each new spell it absorbed. 

Amity watched in shock as this continued, Luz was a bit slow, but reacted fast enough to keep absorbing any spell launched her way with the strange new glyph. Then it hit her. “Stop casting at her, she’s storing the energy in that glyph you idiots!” She ordered, shocking her grunts out of continuing. 

Luz grinned as that stopped, the glyph now about the size of herself and looked to Amity. “Still as sharp as ever, Amor?” She flirted slightly with the green haired woman, and coughing up a bit of blood from her agitated injuries. It was clear that while she was able to dodge and move, she was opening wounds on her body. As her bandages were starting to get redder with each passing moment and her movement had a clear look of pain to it. “Still, that should be enough for what I need.” 

Luz tossed the glyph out, locking in place in the air not far from her. She then pulled one of the healing glyphs from her bandages and tossed it at the massive glyph. Once it made contact, it began to glow and the whole thing began to spiral and shift. 

“Wh-what is she doing?” Lilith asked looking to her sister for some kind of answer. Only to get a shake of the head from Eda as a response, looking just as shocked as the rest of them did. 

Amity gripped her staff tightly, readying herself for whatever Luz was planning, though what it had to do with the healing glyph, she had no idea.

They all watched as the glyph changed, shifting from black to blue and the inner glyph changing to a larger version of the Healing glyph itself. “Perfect, now come to mama.” Luz grinned as she reached out and pulled towards herself. 

The massive glyph passed over her, glowing brightly as it did so. 

Luz gave a near contented sigh as she felt her body beginning to heal much quicker, bones reforming and resetting, organs healing and sealing themself off, and pain practically evaporating away. 

She took in a deep breath as the Glyph faded, it’s power used up, and gave a massive sigh of relief. “Much better! Gotta remember that Glyph for sure.” She grinned as she tore off her bandages, and tossed them away, revealing her more cut from underneath as removing those only left her in a jacket that was still over her shoulders and wearing a purple sports bra to cover her.. Years as a pirate commander and in more than her fair share of battles had left her body rather well toned. 

Something that Amity was having a hard time not noticing. *’I’m dreaming… this is so a dream… She can’t be back and this hot.. What the hell is happening right now!?’* She was also panicking, somethings really don’t change. 

Luz started forming a new glyph, this one dark glowing purple with what looked like a skull inside. “Alright Bones, time to wake up and play!” She yelled, slamming it onto the ground and watched as it spread out around her. 

The grunts all backed up and some even gave a yelp as a massive purple colored bony arm shot out of the ground and slammed down. It was quickly joined by another that pushed against the ground and revealed the large form of a purple skeleton. It’s vertebrae were spiked and the rib cage was a more golden color. In fact it’s whole form was laced with lines of gold, seeming to pulse with magic as it pulled itself out, standing about as tall as a Slitherbeast on its hind legs. 

It gave a powerful roar as Luz created two more glyphs, these a more golden yellowish color and tossed them towards the named “Bones”. 

It reached out and caught both, energy bursting and revealing a pair of glowing crescent moon shaped blades just bigger than it’s boney fists. 

Now armed, it began slamming and charging its way through the grunts that surrounded it. 

That was enough to bring Amity back to her senses. “Shit!” She explained quickly before lowering her staff down and spinning to draw a large pink circle around herself and jump back. With a spin of her staff and slamming the butt end down, the circle sparked to life. “Abomination, rise!” She commanded it. 

From it came a massive Abomination, a bit more monstrous than her normal ones she’d made in her youth. This one held the same gooey texture, but had a far more reptilian form with four glowing red eyes and a gaping maw that gave an almost gurgling roar as a response. It’s clawed hands opening up and running towards Bones, knowing it’s target already. 

As the beasts clashed, Luz’s grin grew. “Hey, Amity!” She yelled out, catching the coven leaders attention. “This kinda reminds me of that witch’s duel we had when we were kids! You know, except I can actually do magic this time.” She laughed. 

“Is this really the time to be reminiscing!?” Amity yelled, blushing from the interaction just slightly. 

“Of course it is! You have no idea how happy I am to see you again, I’ve missed you so much, mi amor!” Luz replied back, kissing towards the woman and even making a quick plant glyph that created a flower just for Amity, right in front of her. 

Amity blushed as she took the flower, smiling softly at it. *’Okay, if this is a dream, I don’t want to wake up…’* She thought to herself, losing concentration on the fight for just a moment. Something that made her eyes go wide when she realized it. 

The drop in concentration showed quickly as Bones overtook the reptilian abomination in the fight and was able to break up it’s form to the point it couldn’t recover. 

“Sorry about this Am, but I think we should end this here for now!” Luz called out as she drew two new glyphs in the air, one lightning and the other fire. With a toss, both flew at Bones much like before with the blades. 

This time however, the beast didn’t catch them, rather it opened it’s boney maw and chomped down on them as they entered. It leaned forward, hunching and bracing itself on the ground as it’s mouth began to glow a bright orange color that became more intense by the second. 

In mere seconds since Bones ate the glyphs, it looked towards the group of attackers and opened it’s jaw. The act loosed a massive blast of orange energy towards them all. 

Amity had just enough time to spin her staff and form a new circle, creating a massive shield that took the blast head on. She felt the strain as it pushed heavily on her defenses, she was able to hold though. “Retreat, now!” She ordered as she held against the blast, her men didn’t need a second order as they quickly ran from the beast. 

Not long after the blast ended and Amity looked to Luz from behind the shield, shocked at the power she had displayed. With one more moment she turned to leave as the shield fell and found a bit of paper floating in front of her. She took one last look back and left quickly. 

-

“Whew, that was something.” Luz smiled, watching as they all left quickly and Bones crumbled back into the earth below, it’s power expended from the final attack. She turned to Eda and Lilith, her smile growing. “Hey E-” 

She didn’t get to finish as she found the older woman slamming into her and hugging her tightly. “That was amazing, kiddo… We have so much to talk about…” Her body was shaking a bit as she was trying to keep herself from being overwhelmed by her emotions. 

Luz returned the hug, holding her lost mother figure just as tightly. “Yeah… We do. I’ve missed you so much…” 

-

On the way back to make a report, Amity took the time to look at the paper. On it was a note. 

_‘We’ve got a lot to talk about and catching up to do,  
meet up at Blood Lake tonight. _

_Luz ;)_

Amity smiled softly and then frowned, holding the note close. They did, there was a lot that had changed…


	6. Explanations and Preparation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Back to things calming down for a bit and setting into the meet up with Amity (which I only have a partial idea of what I want to do with)

A short time after the attempted raid by the Emperor’s Coven, the three women found themselves back in the living room. Most of the mess that Luz had made while she was injured was cleaned off of the couch. 

Lilith had come in with some drinks for them and Luz was now wearing a shirt lent to her by Eda. “You finally got these printed huh?” Luz asked with an amused tone as she looked down at the “Bad Girls Coven” shirt. 

“Of course, there was no way I was canceling that t-shirt order.” Eda shrugged before taking a sip of her drink. “Now, you have some explaining to do, what happened to you and how are you able to use magic that effectively? Did you somehow get a bile sack?” 

Lilith took a seat next to her sister and nodded. “Yes, I’m curious about that myself, along with that glyph you used to heal yourself. I’ve never seen a spell quite like that before.”

Luz leaned back and nodded. “It’s one I came up with after a fight with a guy called Blackbeard, he had a power that allowed him to control darkness as well as absorb things into it and then cast them back out. Normally I use the Siphoning Glyph to take in attacks and reuse the energy right away, but if I want, I can combine a new one into it and have the energy used for that. It’s handy, and probably will be hell for the Witches around here.”

“Okay, guy controlling darkness, you making new glyphs… That’s all well and good, but you still haven’t actually explained what’s going on with you? What did the human world go nuts in the last seven years?” Eda asked, wanting to get to the meaty stuffy. 

Luz shrugged. “I wouldn’t know, I haven’t been there in the last seven years.” 

Both women looked at her incredulously. 

“No seriously.” She held up a hand. “I don’t know what happened with Belos’s machine, but it didn’t send me home. When I got pulled through it, I ended up on a completely different world. There were humans there, but along with them there were giants, fishmen, minks… All kinds of different races of people. Along with plenty of monsters and other strange things. See basically…” Luz began explaining the last few years of her as a pirate. The ups, the downs, and everything in between. 

Afterwards, Eda leaned back in her seat, looking like she was trying to even believe half of what Luz had told her. “Okay, so your power comes from this Devil Fruit thing? It gave you a bile sack?” 

“Well, I wouldn’t say it gave a bile sack, rather it gave me an actual magical core. A center of energy within myself that I can manipulate in anyway I want. Bella couldn’t find anything attached to my heart whenever she did a medical exam.” Luz did her best to explain, honestly even after all this time, she didn’t have a complete understanding of how her own devil fruit worked. 

“Still, it’s hard to believe that such a power can be granted just by eating one of those fruits... “ Lilith stated, attempting to wrap her own mind around things. “There must be some kind of draw back to it though, correct?” 

Luz nodded. “Yeah, it probably won’t be a major problem around here, but eating one causes the sea to turn it’s back on you.” 

“And that means…?” Eda raised an eyebrow. 

Luz giggled, waving her hand a bit. “Sorry, I have to remember that most people aren’t going to even know a small amount about them now. Basically it means I can’t swim anymore.” 

The sisters looked at her with widened eyes. “Wait, it made you forget how to swim!? I mean you could just learn how to again, right?” Eda asked, looking oddly at Luz as she laughed. 

“No, I remember how to swim, I just can’t. See, if I was to fall into any kind of standing water, a lake, the ocean, a tub of water... It would completely sap all my strength and keep me from using my powers, on top of that I’d start sinking like a rock.” 

“So we keep you away from large bodies of water, understood.” Lilith said with a nod, before noticing the young woman looking to her right hand every now and then. “Is there something wrong?” 

Luz jumped a bit, thinking she had been subtle about it and sighed. “Sort of, like I told you before, our crew was in the middle of a war just before I ended up back here.” She saw both nod and continued. “Well, I don’t know what’s happened to the others… If they’re alive, if they made it back to their own world and families. I’m worried.”

“You cared about them.” Eda stated. 

“Of course!” Luz shot up, surprising them a bit. “They were like family to me, we went through hell and back together and I didn’t even get to say goodbye, again!” Luz was tearing up a bit thinking about the others.

This wasn’t some little war like it had been with the Payback War or even like the war of Wano the Straw Hats had started against Kaido and Big Mom. This one had quite literally set the world on fire. The Straw Hats and those backing them taking on the world to make Luffy the King of the Pirates, their own flag thrown in with the Rubber Man as well, going up against the World Government and its own secrets. Add in the remains of the Beast Pirates and Big Mom Pirates, and you had yourself a war that was going to turn everything on its head, no matter who won. 

And the thought that she’d left her own behind was eating at her. That was, until she heard Eda speak up. 

“Hey Kiddo, what’s that on your arm?” She asked, pointing to Luz’s right hand. 

Said young woman blinked and looked down, only for her eyes to shoot wide as she fell back. There, forming on her arm was a marking that only looked familiar to herself. She felt her eyes well up as she traced a hand over it, hoping it wasn’t some fake. 

Her fingers traced over a dark purple dragon like design that started about her mid forearm and wrapped around till it’s head was on the back of her palm, mouth open and trying to bite down on a green gem like design. 

“Luz, Luz, Boiling Isles to Luz!” Eda called, snapping her fingers to get her attention. 

“Huh, wha!?” Luz blinked looking at her. 

“What is that?” She asked again. 

“Right right, sorry... “ She wiped some tears away and held up the arm. “It’s a Hoard Mark, something that my crewmate Spike gave all the commanders, and since it’s here… it means he’s got to be alive still!” She grinned and then got a look of realization. “Oh! This means I can change clothes! I know I put away some spares for sure…” Luz mumbled as she suddenly reached into her pocket and seemed to start digging around in it. 

“Uh, Kid, I don’t think you’ll fi-” Eda started to try and reason with her former student, only to pause and eyes go wide as not only did Luz’s arm go deeper into her pocket, but she started pulling out large objects. 

“No… No… Not there…” She mumbled, pulling out a few large pieces of treasure, a massive anchor that shook the house when she set it down, there was a moment when an elephant's head popped out of her pocket and was shoved back in. “I swear, Spike would steal anything…” She mumbled before her eyes lit up. “There it is!” She called out, pulling out a large clothing trunk from her pocket, it was marked with her name. 

She set it to the side as both sisters looked curiously at the trunk, which she popped open, showing that the inside had a large number of clothes inside. 

“Okay… Um, how did you do that?” Even Eda’s hair couldn’t store that many things away, certainly not as large.

“Huh? Isn’t this Adora’s…” Luz mumbled as she pulled out a red jacket, before shrugging and putting it away. “Like I said, it's the Hoard Mark. See, Spike ate the Hoard Hoard Fruit, which made him a hoarding person. He could take anything he wanted and store it away into a separate pocket dimension for his personal use later.” She explained while looking over a shirt that held the Crew’s Jolly Roger on it, it was a dark purple color. “Hmmm, maybe… Anyway, he was able to develop his powers to let him give other people a special mark that gave them access to the storage space as well, just have to have it active and reach into some kind of container. Can be a bag, a pocket, box… Anything like that and it always expands to fit whatever you’re getting.” She pulled out a dark purple dress shirt and held it over her chest. “Think I should go formal? I am planning on meeting up with Amity tonight.” She smirked, giving a bit of a mischievous look. 

“You’d slay her for sure kid.” Eda laughed.

Lilith giggled a bit and nodded. “Yes, I’m sure she’d love it, but try not to get your hopes too high, it may not be the same now.” She tried to warn her. 

Luz started getting a few other things, a pair of black dress pants, black tie, and a black blazer to go over everything else, and nodded. “Oh I’m sure, I know that I certainly had my fair share of relationships over the last seven years. At least two serious ones, but that doesn’t mean I can’t try and see if anyone is in the way.” She smirked, grabbing one last thing and closing up the trunk to put away. “Guess I’ll go get ready, it’s nearly time for our meet up.” She said, heading to go get a shower.


	7. Reuniting by Moonlight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Today's chapter holds a good bit more fluff than anything else, as Luz and Amity finally reconnect with each other after being apart for 7 years.
> 
> Drawn sketch of Luz's outfit: https://bigkyle990.tumblr.com/post/633777049871532032/luzs-outfit-for-when-shes-going-to-see-amity-at

To say that Amity was nervous was an understatement, sure she was going to a spot she had many times, even in the last few years. This time however, she still wasn’t sure if she was simply dreaming or not. After all, just earlier in the day, Luz herself had walked out of the Owl House and turned away a small regiment of Emperor’s Coven members by herself. 

If that wasn’t something out of her dreams, she didn’t know what was. 

Regardless, she took a calming breath and checked over herself one more time. She was still in her Coven outfit, though a bit more personalized version, a pink sash instead or her normal dark grey, she now had an aquamarine gem to decorate her dress, and pink wrist straps. 

As she walked, she thought back to the times just before the incident that had taken Luz from her. They had started a relationship about midway though the second half of the semester, funnily enough it was around the time Luz had been trying to avoid her. 

If she remembered right, it was some excuse about her being a known criminal now, and not wanting to hurt Amity’s chances with the coven. Stating it was her dream. 

Dream, right. 

Her parent’s dream for her maybe, honestly Amity never really wanted to be in this Coven. While it was amazing to be able to use all forms of magic, the rules you had to follow and enforce she never honestly liked. Something she proved when she jumped to help stop the Day of Unity all those years ago. Little did she know it would send her right on a path to what she didn’t want and loss of someone she cared deeply for. 

She clutched her cloak tightly thinking back on it, just as she felt boot touch the hard wood of Blood Lake’s dock. 

She was being foolish, there wouldn’t be anyone here, even if Luz was really back, she wouldn’t be-

Amity froze as she looked towards the edge of the dock. There a figure stood, a large coat seemingly draped on their shoulders obscuring most of their figure, but she could see the unmistakable hair style of one lost human. It was longer, but the moonlight that caught her dark hair glistened off of it in a soft, almost comfortingly in a way. 

Steeling herself, she began to make her way down the dock, her footsteps echoing louder with each moment, her heart beating in an almost deafening tone. Every part of her was praying that this wasn’t another dream, one that would only haunt her when she awoke any moment. As she got closer she was able to see there was a large design on the back of the dark purple coat the figure wore. 

A large Skull biting down onto a pair of golden crescent moons, cracking one as one of it’s points pierced out of the top of the skull. Written over top of it in Amethyst colored writing was the words “5TA División”.

“You know…” The figure spoke as she froze once more and turned to her slowly. “I was worried you weren’t going to show for a bit there.” 

Her voice was so familiar and yet so different at the same time, older, more mature, and an air of confidence that was different about her. 

Amity found her eyes widening and a blush flaring across her face as the woman before her turned, a grin adorning her features. 

Luz was dressed in a much more formal way then she had expected. Underneath the coat on her shoulders, she was wearing a partially open dark purple under shirt, a black tie loosely tied under a black blazer who’s chest pocket held the same skull symbol that was on the back of the dark purple coat. She also wore a pair of slick black dress pants, and what looked like dark purple dress shoes. 

All in all, Amity felt herself already starting to overheat and maybe a slight bit of hyperventilating just looking at her. This was a really good dream, if it was one. 

Luz saw Amity stopping and staring at her with eyes almost as wide as dinner plates and couldn’t help but giggle softly. “You haven’t changed much I see…” She whispered to herself and decided to close the rest of the distance.

Luz came up to her and gently pushed a bit of the shorter woman’s hair behind her ears. “I take it you approve of my look?” She asked with a small smirk, earning a dumb, starry eyed, nod from Amity, making her laugh. 

It took a second, but Amity shook herself out of her stupor for a moment and backed up, still blushing hard but looking at Luz incredulously. “Is… Is it really you?” She asked, cautiously getting closer again, her hand reaching up slowly as she took Luz’s face in her hand. 

The dark skinned woman didn’t flinch or pull away, she stood there for a moment, letting Amity examine her. “I know how you feel, but yeah, it’s really me. As hard as it is to believe myself, I’m really back.” Her voice was soft, feeling just as unsure as Amity’s own question before. Both women were still trying to process things. 

Amity took a moment to just examine Luz’s face. Taking in every bit of it she could, so she wouldn’t forget it if this ended. She had lost any and all baby fat she had back when they were still kids, looking far more mature, even with a goofy grin adorning it, as well as a few scars that adorned her cheeks and chin. 

Luz was doing much the same as she felt Amity tracing one of her scars with her thumb. She watched as a look of concern began to cross over the beautiful young woman’s face. She couldn’t help but stare, as she had dreamt of this moment over the years, and she honestly felt that her dreams hadn’t done Amity justice. 

Her yellow eyes still had a spark in them that drew you in, her soft milky white skin that caught even this low light perfectly, and the silky feeling as she ran her fingers through her hair. Amity was far more beautiful than she could have ever dreamed. 

Both stood, so enraptured by the others' appearance, that neither noticed as Luz’s hand gently cradled the back of Amity’s neck and pulled her into a sudden kiss. A kiss filled with longing, comfort, and even a sense of satisfaction that neither had felt in years. 

Amity had been shocked, but gave in without a moment passing. That was until her eyes widened and she quickly shoved Luz back, panting a bit as she did so. “Luz you can’t ju-” 

**Splash!**

Amity looked quickly to the sound of a body hitting water, to see that she had accidentally shoved Luz off the dock and into the lake below. “Luz! I’m so sorry! You just surprised me and I...I.. Luz?” Amity froze, Luz hadn’t surfaced yet, why was it taking her so long?

She got closer to the end of the dock and looked on in a growing fear as all she saw coming up was a few bubbles, until they stopped. “LUZ!” She yelled, casting her cloak to the side and diving in after the dark skinned woman. 

Moments past as the rippling water started to calm, until suddenly the pair broke out, two sharp gasps for air ringing out along with coughing from one. 

Amity quickly got Luz back up on the docks, laying the coughing woman across it’s boards as she got out herself. 

Luz coughed, her lungs trying to get what water that had flooded them out, as she breathed heavily for a moment. “T-thanks for the- Save…” She said between coughs and pulling herself up. She’d honestly thought she was a goner there for a moment. 

Amity was panting as well, fear having over took her for a moment and looking to Luz with wide eyes. “What happened! Why didn’t you swim back up!?” She yelled, not understanding in the slightest. 

Luz pulled off her coat and set it on one of the nearby posts to start drying, as she also started to take off her blazer and undershirt, both soaked to the bone. “Cause I can’t swim anymore.” She stated simply, as she sat with her back facing Amity and ringing water out of her under shirt. 

“You what?” Amity asked, prepping a spell to dry herself and Luz off, only to pause as she saw the shirtless form of Luz. Partly because she was much closer this time then during the fight before, but now she could see the rest of Luz’s scars far more clearly. 

Just her back was decorated with former lacerations, puncture wounds, and what may have been claw marks. The most prominent however was a large circular wound right above the small of her back, something she could only assume had a similar scar on the other side. How much has she been through while she was gone? Was the human world that violent right now? 

She would be quickly taken out of that thought process as she barely heard Luz ask her something. “What?” She blushed, hoping she wouldn’t mind repeating herself. 

“I asked, what was that about? Pushing me, I mean.” Luz restated with no annoyance in her voice. 

“I…” Amity looked away, a bit ashamed of herself. “You… You came on so strong… I may have, overreacted…” She admitted, she didn’t hate the kiss whatsoever, it just surprised her. “Things… Things aren’t going to just be the same between us after 7 years Luz.. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to push you away like that though.”

Luz smiled and stood up, casting her own drying glyph to quickly dry them both off and got her shirt back on, only partly redoing the buttons for the undershirt. “No, I know that, I honestly just couldn’t help myself. You’ve just become so beautiful, my brain went on autopilot.” She admitted. 

Amity blushed deeply at that admission and sighed. “How about we just… Talk for now, maybe get some food? I think you have a lot to tell me. Starting with why you can’t swim.” 

The dark skinned woman laughed a bit at that and nodded. “Yeah, I think that sounds like a good plan. Why don’t you pick where we eat, I haven’t been around the Isles in quite a while.” She offered a hand out to her after getting her blazer back on.” 

Amity looked at it for a moment and nodded with a small smile. “Sure, I know a good place in Bonesborough.” She took Luz’s hand and started to lead her back to town. “But you’re paying.” She looked back, sticking her tongue out at her.


	8. A Date and a Found Family's Call

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Another somewhat simple chapter with some more exposition along with a bit of a cliff hanger at the end. Hope y'all enjoy!

The dinner and talk had gone well, both being able to learn a fair bit about what the other had been up to over the last near decade. 

Amity herself was both fascinated and horrified by the stories Luz had told her. One of which included how she had gotten the large scar in her midsection. Of course those weren't the only things they had talked about while eating. 

“So these are them, huh?” Amity asked, looking at the pair of pictures on the table. One of Luz with her crewmate Usagi Tsukino, having been caught sleeping on deck during a lazy day on the Guiding Light. The two looked rather cute together, she hated to admit, as Usagi was sleeping with her head on Luz’s chest. 

The other however was of a much younger looking Luz, about 18 or 19 if she was guessing right, leaning on top of a perturbed looking dark skinned young man, with black hair, including a small beard, wearing a black and yellow shirt and blue jeans with spots on the knees and near the bottom of the each leg. Luz seemed to be wearing an odd fur hat which was white with brown spots, more than likely the boy’s, and said boy did have a slight smile on his face as he flicked off the camera. 

“So his name is Law?” Amity asked, trying to confirm things. 

“Yup, Trafalgar Law, last I heard he had a bounty of about 500 million. Great guy if a bit closed off at times, but I can’t blame him for the shit he went though as a kid. Stupid strong too, he’s hell to fight.” Luz grinned, remembering that he had the Op-Op fruit, which let him control anything and everything within one of his created “rooms”. “We split a bit after he became a Warlord, mutual thing as he didn’t want me involved in his revenge quest against Donflamingo, and I didn’t want to get my crew involved in a war against Kaido.” 

“I see…” She mumbled, looking between the two. “So did you… You know, love them?” Amity asked a bit cautiously, not sure how she would react to the answer. 

Luz looked at her for a moment and gave a soft smile. “Yes, each of them was special to me, but our breaks had been mutual. I cared for them and they both cared for me, but we all agreed it wasn’t something that would work in the end. Do I regret letting them go...?” She sat back in her chair taking a sip. “In some ways yes, but I loved the time I had with them both.” Luz stated, noticing Amity looking a way a bit. “Are you saying you didn’t love yours?” Luz raised an eyebrow as she held up the picture Amity had given her. 

It was an image of one grown up Willow Park, though this was about a year or so back from the looks of things. Her hair was much longer now, Coming about to just above the middle of her back, as well as having come into her own as she grew from the looks of things. All in all, Luz was impressed. 

Amity blushed and hid her face, mumbling something. 

“What was that, amor?” Luz asked with a small smirk on her face. 

“Of course I love Willow…” She admitted out loud. “It just…” 

“Didn’t quite work?” Luz finished, watching Amity nod and sigh. 

“Okay, so I can’t get mad at you, fine.” She stuck her tongue out at Luz, enjoying this time with her to say the least. 

The two looked up as the waiter came over with the check and Amity started going for her wallet, while she had told Luz she would have to pay, she had only been kidding. Luz had been gone for a long time, she doubted the woman had any Sna-

**Thunk!**

Both Amity and the waiter blinked in shock, as Luz had pulled out a good sized bar of gold and placed it on the table. “That should cover things, didn’t really have time to exchange for any local cash, so I hope you don’t mind this.” Luz smiled. 

“T-that’s fine ma’am… It may be too much though…” The waiter admitted, having cast a spell to make sure it was real. It was. 

“No worries, take whatever it doesn’t cover as a tip.” Lus smiled, waving it off.

Amity looked shocked at what just happened. “Luz.. Where did, was that on you this whole time?! How did you even get that?” 

“Pirate.” Luz grinned with a wink before she stood to leave. “Shall we go then?” She asked, offering a hand out to Amity. 

Amity blushed, either due to forgetting Luz’s previous occupation or from the gesture was anyone’s guess, and took her date’s hand. “Yes…” She mumbled as they both left. 

As they walked down the street, Amity had started talking about her time in Emperor’s Coven. She explained that while she’s been it’s head, she’s been trying to work on changing how things are run within. It had been a slow process, but it was better than nothing. 

Luz was impressed, initially not liking that Amity was in the Coven, but didn’t press hard on her beliefs in the system. She’d been gone for a while and in her own way was in a coven herself now. Albeit not one that placed any restrictions on you, as most became pirates to have the freedom to do as they wished. The Arc Crew had been no different on that end. 

The both paused in the walk as Amity’s scroll phone appeared before her, showing that Willow was calling. 

Amity blinked, trying to think of why she would be calling and quickly answered. “Hello, what’s going on Willow?” She asked as the scroll came over to her ear. She listened for a moment, nodding and then sighed, holding her head. “Right, I completely forgot… I’ll be there in a moment. No, no, I’m fine, I was just spending time with someone. We’ll talk about it at the council meeting. Okay, bye.” She hung up and the scroll disappeared while she summoned her staff. 

Luz blinked at all that happening so quickly and raised an eyebrow. “Wait, that was Willow? Aw, how come I couldn’t speak with her and what’s this meeting about?” 

“It’s the Coven head’s Council meeting, happens every few weeks or so. And no, I didn’t want to tell her about you being back yet, it's probably going to come up in the meeting anyway.” Amity said as she got onto her staff and Azula spread her wings and started to lift her off the ground. “I need to go, we’ll talk again later.” She said, almost on an old instinct, kissing Luz on the cheek before flying off. Just barely hiding her blush at the action as she did so.

“Have fun! I love you!” Luz called out, smirking as she watched Amity nearly fall off her staff from the, very public, declaration. 

And with that, Luz was alone, well beyond the many surprised citizens staring at her in shock for declaring such a thing at the Emperor's Coven leader. 

They and even Luz was in for even more of a shock as an odd noise started coming from her. 

**Pura Pura Pura Pura...**

Luz blinked, recognizing the noise rather well as she started searching herself. 

**Pura Pura Pura Pura...**

“What the hell, I don't’ remember having left one in my pocket somewhere…” She mumbled, continually checking all her pockets.

**Pura Pura Pura Pura...**

It was on the third set of rings that she noticed her hand had the hoard mark on it and she reached into her pocket with that. With a grab and a bit more of a pull, out of her pocket came not the tiny form of a baby transponder snail, but a large form of an adult transponder snail, giving off the same noise. 

Luz looked at it a bit oddly as it continued to ring. The shell looked like it had a bit more tech added to it, something that looked a bit familiar, but she couldn’t place her finger on it. With a shrug, she picked up the receiver, getting a ‘click’ from the snail, and answered. 

“Hello?” She asked, a bit confused. 

The snail suddenly gained a familiar smirk as it’s eyes gained a more laid back look. “Ah, so it is you Noceda, was wondering when you’d be showing up.” It spoke in a very familiar voice. 

Luz’s eyes shot wide as she heard the male voice coming through. “Jaune!? Is that you?”


	9. Meetings and Surprises

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Meetings are had both with the counsel and Luz with her own captain. Leading into a lovely surprise at the end.

It didn’t take long for Amity to arrive back at the Castle and make her way to the meeting room for the Council of Coven heads. She was still a bit flustered by the last few hours and even forgetting about the meeting tonight. Of course that she could easily get over that, what the Emperor may say about Luz’s return was another story. She wasn’t able to avoid reporting her return, due to her subordinates having given that information away before she had the chance to stop it. It meant that she could possibly be in danger rather quickly. 

“Amity! There you are!” The familiar voice of one Willow Park snapped her out of her thinking as she rounded the corner to the chamber. 

Willow was currently dressed in the formal Coven outfit, a simple green dress with a silver sash around her waist as well as a silver mantle that covered her chest, the back was marked with the Plant Coven’s symbol. 

Amity smiled at her as the dark haired woman came closer. “Yes, I’m sorry I’m late, have I missed much?” She asked while accepting a hug from Willow.

She pulled back and shook her head. “Oh no, it hasn’t started yet.” Willow looked a bit sheepish. “When I said you were late, I meant, late for you. We still have a bit before it starts.” 

Amity’s head dropped before she gave an amused smile to her long time friend. “Just had to get me all worked up, huh? Who are we still waiting for?”

“Well, we’re missing the heads of three other covens at the moment. Illusion, Potion, and Bard. Hopefully they’ll be here soon.” Willow answered, looking to the end of the hall as she waited. 

Amity decided to stay with her as they waited for them, something that didn’t take long as they both heard footsteps coming down the hall and a gasp rang out from there. 

“Willow!” A sing-song tone came quickly as a rush of red and black blazed past Amity and quickly wrapped Willow in a hug. “Ooooh I missed you, sweetie!” 

The figure was one Skara Park, the recently made wife to Willow and head of the Bard Coven. The two had become very close in their last years at Hexside and Skara herself had quickly become one of the top entertainers on the Isle’s, taking the very top spot when she was named the Coven’s head just over a year ago. 

Willow giggled as she returned her wife's hug and smiled. “Dear, it’s only been an hour or two since we last saw each other.” Laughing a bit as Skara cutely kisses her nose. 

“I know, but I still miss you when you’re not around.” 

“Ugh, do you two have to be so lovey dovey right now… I feel like I’m gonna puke…” A slightly annoyed female voice stated as she approached. 

“Yes we do, don’t be all mad cause you're lonely, Bosha.” Skara stuck her tongue out at the current head of the Potions Coven, only getting an annoyed glare in return. 

“Ah, so much energy coming from the younger leaders, good to see you all haven’t gotten jaded yet.” A new voice stated as a figure appeared from a transportation spell. It showed one Emira Blight, the current head of the Illusion Coven, though she looked rather tired. “Can’t say I feel the same, if Belos wasn’t going to apparently be overseeing this meeting personally this time, I would have sent Ed or Gus in my place. I’m too tired for a meeting right now…” She mumbled, making a circle and calling up a cup of coffee and taking a long drink. 

“Up all night working on spells again, Em?” Amity asked, a bit amused. 

“Maybe.” Was the best answer she got as her sister continued downing her coffee. 

“It is strange though,” Willow stated as she started for the door to the chamber, “why is he taking part personally this time, instead of just overseeing things from his throne room like normal?” 

“I have an idea, but I think it's best to wait till the meeting starts before I bring it up.” Amity said with a sigh, entering ahead of the others, and leaving them a bit confused and curious as they followed after. 

-

Back with Luz, she had taken some time to find a more secluded spot to speak with Jaune and get a small briefing on how the Transponder Snail was even working. “Okay, so Ashoka did some upgrades on the snails we had stashed away with tech from her universe… Got it.” She said, watching as her snail nodded. 

“Yeah, that’s the long and short of it, basically.” Jaune responded. “You’re about the 6th or 7th person to be awake at this point.” 

“Is anyone still on Great Blue?” Luz asked, leaning against the tree in the part of the woods she had gone too to take this call. 

Jaune sighed and the snail shook his head. “I’m not sure honestly, I died taking Sakazuki down with me and woke up back on Remnant. Most of the others had similar experiences, but some didn’t just wake up years later. A few like Spike and Ashoka had only maybe a few hours pass from when they last left and found themselves younger.” 

Luz blinked at that. “Seriously? So whatever cosmic power that was doing this to us has some kind of sense of humor, huh?” She asked honestly. “What about Usagi? Is she ‘awake’ as you keep saying.” 

“That one’s a bit… Complicated.” Jaune said, causing Luz to raise an eyebrow. “Yeah, so we’ve confirmed that she was reborn, since Ranma and her apparently ended up on the same version of Earth. He was able to find her… But... “ Jaune trailed off. 

“But?” Luz repeated, wanting him to continue. 

“Well, either her memories are being repressed by something else or this is a different Usagi all together.” Jaune fished with a sigh. “We’re partly leaning towards the former, cause Saotome was able to sense a very latent amount of familiar life energy that matches our Usagi. We just can’t confirm without getting involved.” 

“Right, going off the stories that she used to tell us about her mother... “ Luz started, watching as the snail nodded. 

“Yeah, the former is the most plausible that some leftover part of her power is interfering. For now though, we’ve decided to keep our distance as a precaution to not cause problems if she isn’t our Usagi.” Jaune explained. 

“That makes the most sense, if it is her though, we’ll get involved if things start going away from what she wants, right?” 

“Of course, we all made a promise to back her up if we could, just because we all died, doesn’t mean we aren’t a crew anymore.” The snail smirked, something mirrored by Luz. 

The crew had many different viewpoints and ideals at the best of times. Many times not exactly getting along, but they did stand by one motto. 

They stood forever under the same flag. 

“That means you have a way of actually getting to other universes and the like?” Luz asked, if so it would be useful for something she very much needed to do. 

“Not yet, we’re working on it with the means we can and coordinating as best as we can through Spike’s Pocket Dimension. We tried traversing it, but the second that he tried getting to someone else's entry point, he couldn’t break through the wall. Having your knowledge of magic added to the efforts would help out with that a lot.” Jaune said simply. 

“I can see what I can work out from what you guys have done, just tell me when to look for something on what’s been done so far and I’ll give it a look.” Luz nodded, she knew that sometimes you needed both magic and science to break through a few of the more… Impossible things. “Anything else I should know for now?” 

“Can’t think of anything, no. Mostly wanted to touch base with you after Spike said he felt another Mark become active.” Jaune admitted with a chuckle.

“Cool, then I need to get going, have something I need to take care of.” 

“Alright, have fun, will talk later.” Jaune replied as the snail hung up with a ‘Kachuck’ and went to sleep. 

Luz put the receiver back on her side and stored away the snail for now. “Alrighty, time to get to work.” She grinned before vanishing in a flash of movement, heading for a specific destination.

-

“That concludes the current projects being worked on within the Plant Coven.” Willow stated, having just finished going over a few of the items that her coven was currently focusing on. One of which included the reforestation of the left shoulder of the Titan. It was a large project, but needed to keep things stable on the Isles. 

As Willow sat down, Amity stood up. “Thank you Coven Leader Park.” She smiled at her and looked back to Belos. 

The meeting had been going for about two hours now and most of the covens had given the usual report on their inner workings, as well as discussed a few issues within the Isles to decide on certain actions that may need to be taken. Thus far, things had been going fairly standard, something she could tell was causing the other coven leaders to wonder why the Emperor had decided to sit in on this one personally. 

With a nod from her Emperor, Amity knew it was time for that information to be provided. She took a calming breath and began. “Now, as I’m sure at least a few of you are aware,” she paused making a spell circle to call on recorded surveillance footage to play, “there was an incident with the R&D Facility caused by the damaged portal device early this morning.” 

They all watched as things seemed normal within the large lab, some working on the portal, others discussing things about it, only for it to begin sparking to life. In the course of only a few moments, It completely opened, bursting with a bright yellow spiraling energy. A few of the scientists were shown having to run for cover as bolts of energy shot off it, damaging the room. “The event itself showed that something came through, firing out and bursting out of the facility itself, leaving the lab damaged, and the portal far more damaged then before.” Amity explained, the scene showing the door burning and even seeming to crack down the middle. She also noticed both Emira and Willow looking much more intently at the scene, no doubt wondering if a certain someone came through. 

“We’re currently unsure if the door can be salvaged and the Emperor’s Day of Unity can actually be achieved at this point, but we are continuing to study the portal.” Amity finished. 

“So what was it that came through?” Bosha asked, being the first to pull her thoughts together. 

Amity made a new circle, beginning to start showing the raid on the Owl House. “We tracked where it ended up after being fired out, landing outside of Bonesbourgh and near the Owl House.” She watched as many eyes widened at the implications that had. “I brought a team out to see if we could recover what may have come throu-” 

“Boss! Boss!” Came a sudden yell from the entrance to the chamber, drawing all attention to a lone panting Emperor’s Coven Guard that had just burst through the door. 

“What is the meaning of this!?” Amity yelled, her spell fading from the sudden interruption and glaring at the Guard. 

“I know, I know, my apologies for interrupting the meeting, ma’am.” They quickly apologized with a salute. “But a dire situation had just been discovered!” He stated. 

“What situation has happened now?” Belos asked, only barely sounding annoyed. 

“It’s the R&D facility, sire!” Eyes shot wide, again? “It was raided and the Portal Door is missing!” 

“What!?” Belos shot up, anger very clear in his normally calm voice for the first time in many years. It was so sudden that all in the room flinched at the action. “Who did this and why were they not caught in the act!?” He demanded. 

“W-w-well, um.. S-sire…” The guard, visibly shaking out of fear of Belos, tried to continue. “It was… Only just discovered… All members of the facility were found knocked out just moments ago?” 

“That’s crazy.” Emira stated, her tone clearly showing she didn’t believe them. “What kind of group could get in and take out the entire facility without anyone else noticing before they had been knocked out too?” 

“I can show you the surveillance… My leaders.” The guard stated, quickly drawing a circle and creating a viewing spell in the middle of the room for them all to see. 

The spell held multiple images of the various goings ons, at the moment it was only showing those walking around the many labs. Guards at posts, scientists doing experiments, and some assistants running around with samples. Fairly standard at the moment. 

That was until a strange wave passed over image after image, a slight distortion within the recording and everyone seemed to have stopped moving for just a moment. It didn’t last long as just a second later, they all fell to the ground, clearly having passed out from whatever it was. 

They all watched, stunned at what they had just seen, even Belos himself was mildly shocked at the action taken. They didn’t get much time to ponder on what had happened though, as a figure showed up on the screen for the entrance. 

They simply walked in, a strange purple and black glyph hovering over their hand before it faded, and started down the hall, never fully facing the camera as they casually strolled in.

The most defining thing about the figure, was that they were wearing a large coat with a strange design on it, one that Amity very quickly recognized. 

_‘No… No she wouldn’t…’_ Amity thought to herself, freaking out already on who she knew that to be. 

It didn’t take long for the figure to reach the room with the portal door and with a bit of work they freed it from the machine and shockingly stashed it away into their pocket, now clearly facing the camera. 

A fair few watching quickly became stunned as they saw her face. Their minds clicking near instantly on who they were seeing. 

“No way... “ Bosha mumbled out. 

“It, it can’t be…” Emira stated in absolute shock. 

“Is-is that really…?” A stunned Willow held a hand over her mouth. 

Amity sighed, as she saw the confirmation. “Yes…” Her voice was Neutral at the moment, even as they watched Luz noticing the camera and giving a big grin, along with a peace sign, before leaving. She seemed to have said something, but there was no audio to the footage. “The human, Luz Noceda has returned to the Boiling Isles.” She stated, leaving no room to question if she was sure. 

Behind her Belos’s fist was tightly clenched as he watched the human simply waltz out with his property, no one awake to stop her and her small jab at him. 

This would not do at all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What Luz said to the camera: "Thanks for the Portal, Belly, I'll take good care of it!"


	10. Reunion and a Show

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We find out why Luz stole the portal door and what she's planning to do with it, as well as beginning to dive back into her past on Great Blue!

The next morning found a rather annoyed Amity making her way through the forest towards the Owl House once more. It had taken some time, but she had convinced Belos to let her go alone this time to confront Luz, rather than just sending a full scale army. Of course, it seemed to slightly be helped by a few of the other coven leaders vouching for her to simply go on her own. On one condition. 

“Why did you even want to come, Bosha?” Amity sighed as she looked back to the small group following her, mainly the red haired three-eyed woman. 

Bosha gave a shrug. “Color me curious, I mean she took down a whole facility in what seemed like seconds, I want to see what’s up with that.” 

Amity rolled her eyes as Willow caught up a bit. “Don’t worry about it, you know she’s changed a lot since we were younger, still a bit nasty at times.” She paused as Bosha let out a ‘Hey!’ and continued. “She’s not just going to attack Luz or anything.” 

“Right and even if she does try something.” One Gus Porter said, coming up on Amity’s other side, now about 19 years old and looking a bit more fit than his younger scrawny self could believe. The rebellion got him into a habit of working out more. “We’ll make sure to stop her!” He grinned, ignoring the eye roll of Bosha. 

“I still can’t believe she pulled that off.” Edric Blight stated as he walked beside his twin sister and coven leader. “I mean I watched the recording and everything, but that’s still nuts.” He turned to Emira with a grin. “We gotta get her to show us the Glyph she used to just knock them all out.” 

They had tried studying the one in the footage, but it was too distorted to see exactly what it was to recreate it. 

Emira grinned as she thought about the fun they could have with a glyph like that. “No kidding.” 

Amity rolled her eyes as they all started talking back and forth about this, seeming to forget that Luz had stolen something very valuable from the Emperor… She was back for just over a day and already the old friend group was starting to side behind her again, Luz certainly had a draw to her. 

“I still can’t believe you would do something so reckless!” They heard the yelling voice of Lilith Clawthorn as they approached the Owl House. “Just by taking this thing, the Emperor could send an entire army after it. Do you really think you could fight something like that off?!” 

“Possibly, I mean some of the higher ups might be a problem, but the grunts wouldn’t be much of a problem.” 

The group perked up as they heard Luz’s voice, rushing past Amity to get to her quicker. Even Bosha rushed a bit more. 

What they came upon was both Luz and Lilith out in the front yard, nearby was the portal door, out in the open and seemingly surrounded by a large Glyph and Luz working with another while she argued with Lilith about her actions the previous night. 

Or she would have been working on it, if it wasn’t for her being suddenly full body tackled by four very enthusiastic young adults. 

“Luz!” 

“GAH!” 

**Crash!**

Amity sighed as she and Bosha finished coming into the clearing, watching as her siblings, Willow, and Gus had dogpiled onto Luz and were currently rapidly firing off questions at her. “Would you guys get off of her!? I don’t think she can breath.” 

“Oh come on, it’s not that ba…” Ed started before looking down and saw Luz quite literally trying to reach her way out of the smile pile, being only barely crushed at the bottom. 

All four quickly got off as Luz took in a very deep gasp of air. “Oh man! I thought I was a goner…” She sighed in relief before looking to her attackers and her eyes lighting up. “Willow, Gus! Oh I’m so happy to see my babies again! I missed you both so much!” She quickly drew both into a big hug, which both were happy to return. “Oh you guys have to tell me everything that you’ve been up to while I was gone, I want to hear it all!” 

“Hey.” Ed cut in, looking pouty. 

“What about us, we’re here too.” Em added, mirroring her brother’s look. 

The three broke up the hug and Luz gave them a grin. “Don’t worry, I didn’t forget about you two. Looking good as always.” She smirked. 

Edric gave her some finger guns. “Back atcha.” He said with a dumb grin. 

Emira however did go red for a moment, getting a better look at Luz herself. “Ye-yeah, you too.” She stuttered out before shaking her head to try and clear the blush. 

Luz blinked at that and raised an eyebrow to Edric. “She okay?” 

He nodded and smirked. “Yeah, she’s just started turning into Amity around pretty women lately.” He said in a stage whisper, earning some chuckles from everyone, and two angry “Hey!”s from his siblings. “Still seriously, you do look good, last 7 years didn’t do badly for you, like the scars.” He said honestly. 

“Thanks, I had plenty to do to stay in shape. So, what brings everyone here?” She asked curiously, having a very good idea with Amity being the only one in uniform. “Not that I’m complaining.” She asked as she turned back to what she was working on. Making some motions with her hands and forming some glyphs while empowering them. 

It was Bosha that spoke up first, having kept back with Amity during the small reunion thing. “We’re here on behalf of the Emperor to get that back.” Bosha pointed to the portal door as a new glyph formed on the ground around it and began spiralling till it locked into place, they all got to see a strange shimmer in the air for a moment before it faded. “What are you doing with it exactly?” She asked, curious about the new glyphs, they seemed like shield glyphs, but with a slight variation in it’s design. 

“Setting up for something that I’m gonna be working on here in a moment.” Luz replied before looking back to the group. “So, you guys are all in the Emperor’s coven with Amity now?” She asked, sounding a bit surprised. 

Amity took that moment to approach. “No, they aren’t part of the coven with me.” 

She was quickly cut off as Gus got between them. “Right! Me, Ed, and Em are part of the Illusion coven, with Emira being it’s leader. Willow is the head of the Plant Coven now and Bosha is the head of the Potions Coven.” He grinned, quickly finding himself being shoved aside by an annoyed Amity for cutting her off. 

“Oh! Nice, I knew you guys were always going to be awesome!” Luz smiled after finishing putting one last glyph into place around the door. She turned to the group and still looked curious. “So if you guys aren’t all part of the Emperor’s Coven, did you just come to visit while Ami tries to arrest me?” She asked, smirking slightly as she saw Amity’s face go beet red at the nick name. 

Said green haired woman coughed to clear her blush and shook her head. “No, they’re here because this is what it took to convince Belos not to send the entire coven after you for stealing the portal.” Amity explained. 

“See!?” Lilith yelled, before growling as Luz gave her the ‘shoo’ motion with her hand. The older woman grumbled as she made her way over to a nearby lawn chair and pouted at being ignored. 

“I’m sure he has other reasons for why he agreed to that, I hate the guy, but he’s clever.” Luz mumbled honestly. 

Amity shook her head and started towards the portal. “It doesn’t matter, we need to take this back now, so you don’t get into any more trouble then you are already.” She said while reaching out towards it near the edge of the glyph. 

Just as she was about to get close though, Luz rushed in. “Whoa there, Amor…” She said, quickly taking Amity’s outstretched hand and pulling around her into a very close embrace with Amity’s back pressed against Luz’s chest, making her blush in shock. She didn’t even mind as Luz rested her chin on her head and continued. “Don’t want you getting any closer than that, you’ll get hurt.” Their fingers were locked as Luz held her around the waist. 

Amity was trying very hard to stay focused. A major feat for herself, considering she could feel Luz’s body pressing against her back. “H-hurt me?” She took a moment, trying to center herself. “How would it hurt me?” 

“That.” Luz pointed down to the glyphs underneath the door, making a larger perimeter around it. She kicked a rock at the glyph, and all but herself and Amity jumped back as a barrier appeared, sending energy flying out as the rock hit it and crumbled to dust. 

Amity would have jumped back if she wasn’t currently being held tightly. “I-what is that!?” 

“Specialized Barrer Glyph pattern I designed to keep things easily contained. Right now it will only let my magical signature through it without reacting. So best to stay back for the moment.” She smiled, kissing her cheek.

“Luz…” Amity said softly, keeping her voice down so only Luz could hear her. “Please, you need to give it back... You don’t even need it since you’re home now and doing anything to it will only get you in trouble with Bel…” She found herself cut off as she had looked up to the dark skinned human, seeing a soft look of sadness in her eyes. “L-Luz…?” 

“Amity… You know that you guys aren’t the only ones that missed me… That there was someone who didn’t even know I was missing until it was too late…” Her voice was soft, but slightly choked up as she trembled just slightly. 

“Luz… I…” Amity started, trying to find words as she let go of her hand and turned in her arms. Luz was right, there was someone else, someone very important that deserved to know that Luz was okay and alive. Just like the rest of them. “O-okay… Just promise me you won’t do something stupid…” She pressed against her a bit, gently gripping her shirt. 

“I promise to try.” Luz giggled, kissing her head. “Thank you, cielo..” With that she let Amity go.

“So…” Willow asked, having recovered from the shock. “First, you have a lot to tell us.” 

“For the third time.” Luz grinned. 

“And what are you doing exactly?” Willow continued. 

“I’m gonna show you a neat trick I developed while I was gone, so stand back and watch.” Luz smirked as she walked into the perimeter of the Glyphs while cracking her knuckles. 

They watched as she formed another unfamiliar glyph in the air. This one took on a violet color and had the design of an open hand in the middle, a circle with a four-point star forming the palm. 

Luz reached out towards the glyph and placed her hand on it’s own design, it began to glow and twist before forming across her arm, leaving it glowing in a violet glow and she formed a fist. Approaching the door she reared back her fist. 

“Luz wait!” Amity yelled, feeling like she understood what Luz was about to do. 

It was two late though as she brought her fist forward swiftly. 

What happened when her fist connected with the massive yellow eye of the door wasn’t what they expected though… Rather than shattering into pieces due to its current condition, Luz’s fist dug straight into it, quickly followed by a mass of violent yellow energy shooting out from the place her arm entered. 

They all covered themselves, even forming barriers of their own in anticipation of being blasted, but quickly found that the energy was being contained by the barrier Luz had made. 

Luz herself looked like she was struggling as she placed her other hand on the door as a brace, seeming to be trying to pull something out. “Come… On… You!” She yelled trying to pull harder. “Don’t you fight me, you little!” She yelled, calling on her Armament Haki to help her. The reaction by adding this new energy made the yellow energy quickly flash to black with a yellow and violet glow to it, as the power shooting out grew in strength. It’s force actually beginning to cause a powerful wind to burst around it. Pushing the group back a bit as they covered themselves. 

“Luz! What are you doing!?” Amity yelled, trying to push against the wind, but finding it hard to make progress. 

They’d all see as said woman was busy starting to pull her arm out, the nexus of the energy seeming to come with it as she pulled. Luz grunted as she kept pulling hard against whatever force was fighting her, until suddenly, it all came free and Luz was blasted back. 

She quickly corrected her flight in the air and twisted so she would land with her feet on the ground and had her free hand to help catch herself. It worked, though it had created a good sized divot in the ground where she slid. 

In her hand was a mass over glowing and violent yellow magical energy that was trying to escape her grip with every second that passed. 

“Oh no you don’t… Hold still!” Luz growled as she brought her other hand up and pressed on it, pushing her own magic into it. . 

She started to work the energy like clay, pulling, squishing, and reshaping it for what seemed like forever, until she grinned. “Ah ha! Done!” She yelled triumphantly as she held up a completely new glyph. This one was a bright yellow, with the design of a slit eye staring out, above and below it was a pair of arrows. 

Back with the door itself. Now lacking in its own magical power, it crumbled to the ground, falling into pile of simple lumber debris. 

The others approached her a bit cautiously, Gus and Edric being the bravest as they came over and both poked it. Feeling the soft hum from the energy it contained. “So… Is this what I think it is?” Gus asked, looking to Luz. 

“Yup.” She fully stood up, holding the glyph out a bit and examining it. “This is a glyph of the magic that was in the portal door. Thus, it should be capable of simply making a portal itself.” She stated proudly. 

“Should?” Willow asked, unsure about that statement. 

“Should. It hasn’t stabilized quiet yet, but that always happens when I make a glyph from the raw core of a magical artifact. Nearly underestimated this one with how damaged it was.” She admitted while walking over a bit towards the cliff face nearby. 

She took a moment and tossed the glyph out, clenching her fist to activate it. The glyph locked in place just a bit away from the cliff and quickly expanded, shooting to a diameter equal to the machine that the door itself was part of. Once it set, they could all see that the eye marking wasn’t open yet. Luz started pumping magical energy into the glyph and the arrows around the eye began to spin slowly. 

Luz looked like she was struggling as she kept the energy flowing into it. The arrows started to spin faster as energy shot off from the glyph, distortions of reality pulsing off of it as the eye slowly started to open. Luz gritted her teeth as she felt the push back until it gave way and the glyph shattered, throwing her back a good way to make a new divot in the ground and right into a tree that quickly broke at its base and fell on top of her. . The others rushed to her quickly to make sure she was okay. 

“Luz, by the Titan are you okay!?” Amity yelled worriedly. 

“Damn it! It still needs work…” She growled, tossing the large trunk off like it was nothing and pulling herself up to a sitting position. “Guess I shouldn’t be surprised… If Spike is having trouble with Dimensional walls, of course I’m going too.” She sighed, pulling out a notepad and pen from her pocket, starting to write some things down. 

“Wait,” Willow blinked, “Spike? Who’s Spike?” She asked. 

“Wasn’t that one of your crewmates, Luz?” Amity asked, happy to see that she was okay, covered in some dirt, but barely a scratch beyond that. 

Luz looked up and blinked. “Huh? Oh, right, they haven’t been here for the explanation yet. Well…” She paused, putting away her notes. “I have no problem telling the story again, won’t be the last time I tell it either.” She laughed as the others just sat on the ground to listen. 

-

Seven Years Ago - Great Blue - West Blue Sea

Luz screamed as the massive serpent was continuing to come down on her, trying to pull out some kind of glyph paper to hopefully stop whatever this thing was. She found a Fire Glyph and tried to use it, only for it to crumble like it had the last time she went through the portal. 

“No, no no no no!” She covered her head, hoping that this wouldn’t be how things ended. 

The next thing she heard, wasn’t the massive beasts insides or even a rush of water… No it was.

**Boom Boom Boom!**

The beast wailed as it took head on cannon fire from a nearby ship. 

“Hey! Get away from her!” A boy that looked only a bit older than Luz herself yelled as he jumped from the ship at the beast. He had dark green hair and tanned skin, while wearing what looked like a dark purple vest hoodie over a light green shirt with purple flames at the bottom, along with baggy looking purple jeans. 

As he flew at the monster, that was recovering from the cannon fire, his arms ignited in green flame, taking on the look of two massive reptilian clawed arms. The scales were a deep purple and caught the light of the sun, shimmering almost like a gem. 

With a guttural roar, he slashed at the beast with his newly made claws, starting to fight it. 

Luz couldn’t believe what she was seeing as this kid no older than her started fighting the massive leviathan. She was so shocked that she barely caught the new shadow that appeared and quickly looked up as she heard someone call. 

“Hey! You okay down there!?” A male voice yelled down to her, she couldn’t see them because of the way the light was casting his form in a shadow. 

“I-I think so!” She called back, only to give a squeal as two more cannon shots rang out from the sailing ship that had pulled up. 

“Good to hear, now get up here!” He said again, tossing a rope ladder down to her, which she quickly climbed. 

Luz panted as she got onto the deck of the ship quickly. “Thank you so much for saving me.” She smiled looking up, to see the guy's face. 

It was the face of a tall blonde haired, blue eyed young man, looking to be about 18 years old. He was dressed in a black shirt tucked into a pair of blue pants, held by a pair of crossing belts. Over his shirt was a short sleeved white zip up hoodie and she could see a sword at his waist. 

The guy smiled and patted her shoulder. “No problem, just glad that we got to you in time. Names Jaune Arc, captain of the ship.” 

“Oh, I’m Luz Noceda.” She smiled back to him. 

“So, any reason you were out in the middle of the West Blue on a little dingy?” Jaune asked, a bit amused. 

“Huh?” Was the best she could muster, still processing everything that had just happened. Right, she got pulled through the portal! The Boiling Isles, she wasn’t there and was supposed to be the human world. That didn’t have giant water monsters though. “I.. I don’t know…” She said, unsure and afraid of what was going on.

Jaune looked to her oddly, but nodded. “Looks like you got a story to tell.. Hold tight till we scare off the Sea King and you can tell us.” He assured her, guiding her towards the main mast before going back to help with the fight. 

Luz just held herself for the moment as she sat against the mast, trying to understand what was going on.


	11. A New Family

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The flashback continues, as Luz meets the rest of the early members of the Arc Crew

It didn’t take too long for the group to scare off the massive creature that Jaune had called a Sea King. Once it had been scared off, the residents of the ship came over to where Luz was still sitting, looking confused and worried. Along with Jaune and the green haired boy, there were two others that came over to meet her, one was a blond haired girl looking to be about her age, with her blue eyes and similar hair color she could almost be Jaune’s sister. She was wearing a short cut blue hoodie that stopped just past her chest with a silver colored shirt underneath, along with a dark blue skirt with black leggings underneath. She looked nice enough, a bit bubbly almost. 

The other was a red headed Asian looking girl around the same age as Jaune, she looked to be wearing a dark red sleeveless chinese martial artist shirt with brass buttons along it. Her red hair was pulled into a long pig-tail and she also wore a black pair of martial artist pants. She was looking at Luz a bit oddly, almost like she was looking past her at something else. 

After a minute, said red head looked at Jaune. “So, who’s the kid?” 

“Says her name is Luz Noceda, she was out in the middle of the ocean about to be eaten by that sea king.” He pointed to where the beast had previously been. “Said she didn’t know why.” He shrugged. 

“I don’t!” Luz cut in before the red head could say anything in response. “I really don’t, look this is gonna sound crazy, but I came from a place called the Boiling Isles and fell through a portal that was *supposed* to send me to the human world. Only it didn’t and I ended up… Wherever the heck we are!” She yelled, throwing her hands in the air out of frustration. 

The group shared a look and then the green haired boy leaned down closer to her. “So, what you’re saying is, that you came from some other weird world by a means you don’t know and didn’t mean to end up here?” He asked with a raised eyebrow. 

“Yes! That’s exactly what happened! Not that I meant to go into the portal, I was trying to destroy it and then it sucked me in!” Luz exclaimed as she shot up into a standing position. 

Slowly the other gained some form of grin or smirk on their face. “Well then, you ended up on the perfect ship for that.” Jaune chuckled, seeing a very confused look from on Luz’s face. 

“Huh?” Was about the best she could state at that. 

“We’re all from different places on this ship in someway or another.” Jaune shrugged. “I’m from a world called Remnant, where massive creatures of darkness are out to try and kill all humanoid life on the planet and are only fought back by people called Hunters that use weird powers from their souls and weapons that can also be guns.” 

“Yo, I’m Spike. I’m actually a dragon from a world called Equestria that doesn’t have any kind of human life and is actually mostly ruled by magical pony creatures along with a few other races and the like.” 

The red head was next, she gave a wave. “Ranma Saotome, I’m from a place called earth.” 

“Like me!?” Luz’s eyes lit up, only to look confused as Ranma gave a slight wiggle of her hand. 

“Maybe? There's a lot of weird stuff that happens on my earth. Demons, magic, a few gods running around. Stuff like that.” She shrugged. 

“Not to mention curses.” The blond haired girl grinned as she poked Ranma. “What she isn’t telling you is that she’s also got a weird water based curse that makes her a guy when she’s hit with hot water and a girl with cold water.” She teased a bit as she jumped away from a swing by the annoyed redhead. 

“Yeah, that too. I don’t care if you refer to me as he or she depending on the gender I am at the time, but I do identify as male.” Ranma stated. 

“Got it.” Luz nodded before looking to the blond haired girl. 

“Right! My name’s Usagi, I’m actually a reborn princess from a kingdom that ruled over most of the planets in it’s galaxy, all but Earth, and it got overrun by some force of darkness attacking while we were having a party. Probably could have been avoided if Mom actually thought about our peoples safety instead of always trying to show off, but that’s a story for later.” She waved off. “Anyway, when shit went down, my mom cast a spell that was supposed to send myself and the princesses of the other planets forward in Earth’s timeline to be reborn, but she missed with mine I guess.” 

Luz blinked at all that and just looked absolutely dumbfounded. “Okay... Wow, and I thought ending up on a world of witches and demons was the weirdest thing that would happen to me.” She said honestly, with the way some of these were explained, the Boiling Isles almost sounded normal. 

Jaune laughed. “Oh trust me, this place will disprove that pretty quickly. So, care to join up with us? We’ve decided to stick together in this while we all figured out a way to get home.” He offered. 

“You guys said you were pirates?” Luz asked a bit awkwardly, getting a nod from Jaune as he pointed up to the triangular sail of the large Cutter ship they were all on. 

Looking up, Luz saw a massive mark of a skull biting a pair of golden crescent moons and being pierced by one of them at the same time. “I mean.. I don’t know how good of a crew member I’d be, none of my glyphs would work here so…” She said softly, feeling a bit useless. 

“Hey, don’t worry about it, we can teach you how to fight. I’m good with a blade and Ranma is a martial artist, so between the two of us I’m sure we could get you into fighting shape. It’s the criminal part that you might have a problem with.” He laughed honestly.

Luz laughed. “Well I’m sort of already one back on the Isles, so it won’t be so bad. If you don’t mind me being a bit useless for a while, I don’t mind joining.” She said to them with a sheepish smile. 

They all shared a grin and nodded. “Welcome to the Arc Pirates, Luz Noceda.” Jaune greeted her once more and offered out a hand to her, which Luz took and shook with her own grin. 

-

About Two weeks since that day had passed and things had been rough for Luz to say the least. Not horrible, mind you, just rough. 

Life on the sea took some getting used to, she’d never been on a boat before and the rocking of the waves made things feel a bit weird at times. Thankfully the training with Jaune and Ranma had helped to keep her mind off that feeling and focused on getting stronger. Apparently that was a major priority right now, due to the fact that Jaune already had a bounty on him despite being considered a rookie pirate. 

It wasn’t a massive one, only about 30 million, small for the part of the world they were in, but still something people would gun for. The reason he had one already though was due to him previously being part of the Whitebeard pirates as an apprentice pirate. The government didn’t want him going unnoticed when he left the crew to make his own and slapped him with a good sized bounty early to try and get him taken down fast. 

It hadn’t worked out that way thankfully, thanks to having decent fighting strength and being a very capable swordfighter. 

Of course the training itself had been hell on her in many ways. Since they didn’t know when they would be attacked as they sailed around the West Blue looking for more people to join the crew. Ramna had her wearing weights almost all the time, except for when bathing and sleeping. Each time she got moderately used to the weights, he would quickly increase it. 

Added on to that, Jaune had her wielding a very heavy practice sword during their spars, something he would make sure would be at a fast pace each time. Barely giving her a moment to catch herself if he took the advantage. 

The last two weeks hadn’t been all pain and training though. 

She’d gotten the time to get to know the other members of the crew as well and what they did on the ship. 

She’d quickly made friends with Spike, being that they were very close in age to each other. She learned that here on Great Blue, he was part of a race of people called the Dragon Kin. Draconic beings that could switch between their dragon form and human forms on a whim, which was how he was able change his arms into dragon claws the first time that she saw him. He was also the ship's Helmsman, mostly at the wheel when needed if a storm came by to make sure it stayed on course and the like. 

Since he was the ship’s Helmsman, that meant he worked closely with Usagi as well. Due to the young blond being the crew’s Navigator, making sure to get them from place to place. Usagi said she had been fascinated by the way that Great Blue’s weather patterns and sea currents worked. Something that greatly drew her to wanting to go to the Grand Line from a young age. 

She also wasn’t anyone to take lightly as she apparently had a very rare type of devil fruit power, a thing that Luz only had a bare understanding of at the moment. Usagi’s was called the Crystal Crystal Fruit, one that allowed her to create, control, and become crystal. To the point that as long as she changed fast enough, if part of her broke off she could easily reform it like nothing happened. 

It was really cool to Luz, but the loss of the ability to swim was something that she wasn’t sure was a great trade off. That said, if she did come across a devil fruit, she was pretty sure she’d eat it. 

Things had been very interesting over these last two weeks, that was for sure, but Luz still looked out at the ocean each day. Clutched in her hands was her bat cased cellphone, it’s broken screen lit up and showing some of the conversations with her friends and her mother. Pictures she’d taken of all of them, some with her, some without. Her grip would tighten slightly as she tried to keep herself calm. 

She’d see them again, she was going to make sure of it. They all wanted to get home and she was no different. 

Luz took a moment to clear her face and take a calming breath to go and get back to some of her duties on ship, until it was suddenly rocked as the crashing sound of cannon balls hitting the water near them sounded off. 

She spun fast, just as Ranma called from the Crow’s Nest. “We got a Marine Ship firing on us from the port side! Get ready for a fight!” He yelled before jumping down to get on a cannon and return fire. 

“Looks like we got our first fight in a while, ready?” Jaune came out, tossing Luz an extra sword. 

She caught it and gulped. “Yup! Let’s do this!” She grinned.


	12. Raids and Rewards

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A pitched battle against some Navy attackers, leads to finding a rather high priced reward and maybe a few future consequences.

Moments before the attack on the Arc crew’s ship.

Within the captain’s quarters of the marine naval ship Aschetos, one well decorated Marine Captain Nerven could be found looking over a rather fancy looking chest on his desk and a written order. The man had his pink hair up in a very strange mass of swirls, even matched in his odd swirly goatee and side-burns. A pale yet slightly strong looking man, with his captain's coat which was covered in multiple awards and medals to show off his status as an accomplished Naval soldier. Underneath he wore a much fancier version of the standard Naval uniform. 

“Ah, doesn’t it do you proud to be on this mission, Lieutenant?” He asked, looking at his much more normally dressed Lieutenant in a green lined white hat with Marine printed on it, a white and green lined sleeveless button up shirt, and standard blue marine pants. 

The man gave a salute. “Sir, it is a rare honor sir. It’s not everyday they ask someone of captain rank to perform such an important task.”

“Haha, no, no it isn’t!” Nerven laughed as he sat back. “A true showing of my worth to the Navy that they would choose me to hand deliver this to the RedLine for the Celestial Dragons. Ah, just you wait, they’ll be sure to promote me after this Lieutenant.” 

“I’m sure they will, sir.” The man only somewhat agreed, hoping just so maybe either he could be promoted or at least work with someone a bit less annoying. 

Before the conversation could continue, there was a sudden knock at the door. “Come in.” Nerven ordered. 

In quickly came a marine shoulder and gave a salute. “Captain, Lieutenant, sirs! We have spotted a pirate ship off of our starboard side and are looking for permission to engage.” He explained quickly. 

“A Pirate ship? Have they started firing on us?” Nerven asked with a raised eyebrow, weighing his options. 

The soldier shook his head. “No, sir. It seems they haven’t noticed us yet, or if they have they’ve chosen not to try and engage.” 

“Then why should we bother with them?” The captain asked with a mote of disgust in his voice. “If you’ll recall, we’re currently on an important delivery mission, marine.” He glared at the man for wasting his time. 

“I fully understand sir, but,” 

“But!?” Nerven yelled, annoyance starting to grow further at the soldier pressing the issue. 

“Well sir, if we’re correct on the jolly roger on the ship’s sail,” he pulled out a wanted poster and opened it, revealing the image of one Jaune Arc, “then that’s the ship of the Arc Pirates.” 

Nervan paused in his attempt to yell at the man, seeing the poster and hearing the crew name. “Arc, huh?” 

“Jaune Arc is considered a high priority target at the moment, sir.” The Lieutenant looked to Nervan. 

Nervan looked contemplative as he leaned back in his desk chair. “Yes, something to do with his pedigree as a pirate. He’s been running around the West Blue for some time, searching for a crew. Fine.” He stood up quickly. “Give the order to open fire! We’ll take Arc and his little crew captive and deliver them to the Marine base after we finished our mission.”

Both the Soldier and lieutenant gave a salute and a “yes sir” before going out to prepare for battle. 

-

Present

“We got more incoming!” Spike yelled as new cannon fire was raining towards them at a fast pace. 

“On it!” Ranma called as she, having been hit by some spray of water and currently in female form, brought her hands together and started forming a slightly translucent golden ball of energy between them. She drew her hands in close for a moment before pushing them back out quickly and yelling. “Moko Takabisha!” From her her hands flung a massive ball of golden energy, that once it came into contact with the incoming cannon balls, they all exploded on contact. 

“Whoa! That was so cool!” Luz shouted amazed at the sight of one of Ranma’s techniques. 

“Don’t get to distracted, we still got a fight ahead of us kid!” Jaune said, coming around while swinging his free hand out, releasing a blast of winds that sent another group of cannon balls off course and impacting with each other. 

Luz blushed from having been called out. “Right, sorry!” She said, before quickly dodging out of the way of an incoming blade and quickly striking back with her own. 

The Navy ship was now close enough to be able to begin making boarding maneuvers, a fair few having been able to get on board, while others found themselves falling into the sea as their lines were cut. 

Usagi wasn’t far off, working to fight back against a few of the invaders, her arms a clear and spiked crystal at the moment as she swung on a group, knocking them clear over the side. “Yo, should we start working to flee or are we raiding the ship!?” She called out to Jaune. 

“Oh! Raid, I say raid!” Spike yelled after setting a few marines on fire. 

Usagi rolled her eyes. “You would say that you klepto!” 

Spike bashed down a few more Marines before throwing them over the side. “Hey! I like having nice things! Plus it’s a Navy ship, they’ve got to have some good stuff on board for sure!” He reasoned. 

“I’m with Spike on this one.” Ranma said, her tone calm and almost cold as she led a group of attacking marines in a spiral pattern as she spoke. “We’re a bit low on supplies anyway, wouldn’t hurt to take theirs.” 

“You’re not taking anything you filthy pirate!” Yelled one Marine as they all went into strike as they seemingly surrounded the redhead. 

“Not your call.” She smirked slightly as she quickly brought her hand into an uppercut and a massive blast of wind formed below the group and forming a twisting dragon-like spiral of wind. The spiral of wind itself was strong enough that it nearly started to tear their sail. 

“Hey! Watch it Saotome! If you’re going to use that kind of stuff, do it on their ship!” Jaune yelled, earning a sheepish look from said redhead. “And you’ve got a point, alright crew, get ready to board the enemy vessel!” Jaune called, earning some affirmative cries from his crewmates. 

-

Captain Nevran was starting to get pissed as he found more and more of his men pushed back and defeated by the pirates. “What is going on!? They’re just a group of five brats playing at being pirates! Why haven’t they been taken down yet!?” 

“Sir!” One marine that had been working the cannons saluted. “They’re pretty powerful for the small size of the crew, the men are doing their beeeeEST, AH!” He suddenly yelled as a mass of wind caught the starboard side of the ship, lifting not only that marine, but many into the air of a massive cyclone. 

Nevran braced himself as the cyclone picked up, showing that inside was the group of pirates, causing his eyes to go wide. 

In a burst, the winds sent the picked up men flying overboard and five thunks on the deck signified the arrival of the enemy. 

“We’re here for your shit! Either run or get run through!” Jaune yelled as he drew his blade, Ranma took a fighting pose, Spike transformed his arms and let green flames from his mouth, Usagi created a crystal pike from her hand, and Luz readied her own blade. 

Some of the remaining men did take a step back, starting to realize just how outmatched they were in this fight. Nerven however didn’t show signs of letting up. 

“The only ones that will be run through here are you pirate scum! Now open fire!” The captain ordered as he drew his own pistol and began firing at them, along with a large group of marines firing off their own rifles. 

Things were happening pretty quickly for Luz, not quite being ready for actual guns, she felt her heart drop. That was until Usagi got between the hail of musket balls and herself, her full form turning crystalline as the bullets bounced off of her. “You good, Luz?” She asked with a grin as she continued to block the gunfire. 

Luz looked wide eyed and nodded. “Yeah, thanks Usagi.” She said, relieved and noticed Jaune and Ranma charging forward. 

Jaune was blocking the bullets with his blade as Ranma deftly moved between them. Once close enough, Jaune’s form flashed as he suddenly appeared across the firing squad, their guns all falling in half as they had been cut during the flash of motion. 

Ranma came in quickly after, a spinning helicopter kick blasting back the group, including the Marine captain. 

Luz’s senses screamed at her in an instant, senses slightly homed thanks to training with Jaune and Ranma, she moved out of the way quickly as a few attacked from behind. With a quick movement she struck back, finding herself clashing with a man in a green hat. 

“You look pretty young.” The man said, swinging his blade downward at her, only to find it blocked and reflected back to throw him off his balance. He used to motion to dodge back as Luz tried to press her advantage. “I think it would be better if you gave up, there won’t be a heavy sentence on you if you just joined the crew.” He attempted to reason with her. 

Luz glared, having heard that kind of line from the coven members back home. It was barely ever true. “No way, I’m not turning my back on the crew just cause you want to lie to me.” She growled, trying to press on him, finding her movements sluggish. She was still wearing the training weights. 

“Don’t be stupid, kid. I’m telling you the truth, It’s much better if you just giv-what the heck are you doing?!” He yelled as he saw Luz reaching in her shirt at something, clearly mad at her for it.

It didn’t take long for Luz to unhook the vest that was under her shirt and remove it. With a quick toss she got ready once more to face her opponent. 

“What the? A training ve-Holy!” The lieutenant yelled as once it hit the deck, not only did the vest break the wood almost to the point of falling to a lower deck, but shook the whole ship. Actually stopping combat for a moment. 

Even Luz herself looked shocked at the impact. _‘How much weight did Ranma have on me!?’_ She thought to herself, before shaking her head and refocusing. _‘No time for that, got to focus on the fight.’_ She took a quick step forward, and found herself nearly over shooting her target as she swung her blade at him. 

The lieutenant was able to block the attack, but found himself being forced back. _‘Shit, she’s too strong!’_ He thought to himself as he was flung back, slamming into a few men and the ship’s siding near Captain Nervan. 

“Lieutenant! What in the hell are you doing!?” He yelled, before looking back to see not only a shocked Luz, but he could see that the action taken by the seemingly weakest member of the crew had affected his men. Many were backing down now, some even having dropped their weapons in shock. He growled, this wasn’t going to do. “Retreat! Get to the lifeboats and bring any injured that you can with you!” He ordered, quickly picking up his Lieutenant to get him on a boat. 

They didn’t need a second order as they all started for the lifeboats in a panic, and it wasn’t long before they had all cleared off and were starting to row away as fast as they could. 

Once they had fully cleared out, the crew had taken to going around and checking what the ship had. 

Luz was wandering towards the captain’s quarters with Usagi in tow. “So, think anything good will be in here?” She asked while they were opening the door and searching for the lights. 

“Are you kidding? Did you see the guy, he was completely done up, no way a guy like him wouldn’t have some nice stuff stashed away.” Usagi grinned as she found the switch. 

As soon as the light turned on, both girls' eyes centered directly on the ornate chest that sat on the captain’s desk. “Pay dirt! Check this fancy thing out!” Usagi cheered as she rushed over to it and found what looked like orders next to the box. “Hmmm, what’s this?” She mumbled quickly reading it, before her eyes shot wide. “Oh shit…” She mumbled a bit in shock. 

“What? What is it, Usagi?” Luz asked curiously as she tried to see the note. 

The blond girl quickly picked up the chest and kept a hold of the note. “Come on, we got to go find the captain now.” She said before rushing off. 

“Wha? Hey, wait up!” She said, quickly following after her. 

-

It didn’t take them long to find Jaune and the others, currently loading a bunch of crates of food and water up onto the deck. 

“Jaune, Jaune you need to see this, now.” Usagi said in an urgent tone as she brought the chest and note over to them. 

“What’s this…?” Jaune mumbled as he took the note and started reading it. 

Spike got a bit closer, seeming to be going for the box. “Oooh, that’s a fancy chest, let me see it!” He lunged at it, before Usagi pulled it out of the way and he slammed onto the deck. “Oow…” he mumbled in a slight heap. 

“Not the time for this, Spike.” Usagi glared at him. 

“What? It’s just a treasure chest, what’s so bad about it?” He mumbled, rubbing his chin where he landed. 

Before Usagi could answer, Jaune gave a whistle. “Well well, we’ve probably just made a hell of an enemy.” He chuckled, having finished reading the note. “Looks like this ship was on a delivery mission for the World Nobles.” He watched as both Ranma and Spike's eyes shot wide. “And that box has whatever they were transporting in it.” 

“World Nobles?” Luz asked, confused. 

“Really stuck up type.” Ranma explained as she came over with a large crate of food on her shoulder, setting it down. “They’re people descended from the 20 kings that formed the World Government, 800 some odd years ago. They think of themselves as gods of the world and everyone that isn’t them as lower than dirt.” 

“Yeah, they even take people as slaves or just kill those that sneeze in their direction… Really shitty people if you ask me, if they can even be called people.” Spike spat out. 

Luz was a bit shocked to hear about that. “So, not people to cross then, huh?” She mumbled. 

“Nope, but we just did that it seems.” Jaune chuckled. 

“Jaune, what are we going to do about this? I wasn’t planning to get on the World Government's radar this quickly!” Usagi yelled, worried about the situation. 

“Nothing we can do, we’ve already taken the package, not like we can give it back.” He said with a slight shrug. “That said, I doubt it will come down on us more than a bounty increase, maybe even a few for the rest of you guys. The guy that should really be worried is that captain, even if he spins the story that we attacked them, he still let the thing he was supposed to protect get taken. That guy’s more screwed than any of us.” 

“Okay, fair…” Usagi mumbled. “So what’s in it then? We never looked.” 

Jaune took the box from Usagi and it down on the deck. He took out his blade and swung at the lock, cutting it in half at the latch. Once it fell off he knelt down, with the others quickly forming around him to get a peak. Jaune didn’t let that dissuade him as he opened the box slowly, only for his eyes to go wide. 

“No way…”


	13. An Ominous Visit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We return to the present, to see that Luz's story had more than just her friends listening in.

“Um…” Luz started, seeing them all looking shocked at the contents of the chest. “What is it?” She asked, very confused as she looked back at it. 

Inside was a strange looking purple fruit, with what looked like protruding diamond shaped growths, kind of like grapes, and each had a swirl inside of them. There was also an odd energy to it. Something familiar in a weird way to Luz. 

“This.” Jaune said as he pulled it out. “This is a devil fruit, one of the most sought after items in the world.” 

“That’s a devil fruit!? It looks so...weird.” Luz said, getting a bit closer as she examined it more. 

“Yeah it does, and just selling one to the right buyer could set you up for life. I wonder how much that Noble paid for this one. Must have been a fortune, and now it’s not even gonna get to them.” Spike laughed. “So what are we doing with it?” 

“Well, only two members of our crew don’t have powers. So,” he looked to Luz and Ranma, “want to rock, paper, scissors for it?” He asked, mostly joking. 

Ranma looked at it for a little bit and shook her head. “Thanks, but no thanks. As much as I appreciate you guys having powers, I’m good with the stuff I can already do, Luz can have it if she wants it.” 

Jaune nodded and looked to the young dark skinned girl. “So Luz, do you want it or are we holding onto it for later?” 

Luz looked at the fruit for a moment, trying to understand what it was and how it would even work. “Well um, how does it work and which power would I get?” 

She felt a sudden weight on her as Usagi leaned over her back and placed her hands on her head to rest her chin on, causing the dark haired girl to blush a bit. “Well, that’s the fun part, you don’t know what’s in the fruit till you take your first bite. After that it just takes a moment and you get the information on what the power is. There are a few that have been identified by some guy called Dr. Vegapunk, but that’s not too many.” She said honestly. 

Luz reached out and took the fruit. “So I just… Take a bite?” She asked, not really waiting for an affirmative as she did so. She took a rather good sized bite out of the thing and chewed it. Just moments later, she had a very apparent reaction as her face quickly turned green and she forced the part she bit off down her throat and nearly barfed. “¡Santa mierda! That’s grose!” She yelled, throwing the fruit away, which Ranma caught, and started dry heaving over the side of the abandoned navy ship. 

Usagi started laughing like crazy. “Oh yeah, they also taste like absolute shit.” She said through her giggles. 

“You could have warned me about that!” Luz whined, still tasting the wretched thing on her tongue. After a minute, she turned around and sat against the wall of the ship and groaned. 

“Soooo, what power did you get?” Spike asked, super curious if it was gonna be a good one. “Do you feel any different?” 

“Um…” She blinked and looked to them a bit unsure, looking down to herself. “I’m not sure, I mean beyond the bad taste in my mouth I feel pretty much the same.” She said in an honest tone, at least till something odd started to well up inside of her. “Mage mage…” She mumbled softly, as she gently closed her hands and opened them again, a very soft glow of purple energy forming around them. 

“What?” Jaune asked, having barely heard her. 

“It’s the name, Mage Mage fruit, that’s what it’s called. Hold on.” She quickly stood up, feeling her heart in her throat as she rifled through her pockets to find something. Out of her pocket she quickly pulled out one of her glyphs papers that she still kept on her, this one was a fire glyph and quickly tapped it with one hand. 

The reaction was quick, faster than she’d ever seen it react before as the paper quickly flashed into a mass of flames, pushing her hand as a tower of flame shot into the sky, until she smacked her other hand over it. She looked on with eyes as big as saucers, much like the rest of the crew, until she started to hyperventilate for a moment. “I...I...I can do magic again… I CAN DO MAGIC AGAIN!” She yelled, quickly grabbing onto the nearest person in a hug. She happened to grab onto Usagi and looked between laughing and crying, as the blond returned the hug. 

-

**Present Day**

“So, that’s how you’re able to do magic now without the papers?” Gus asked, fascinated by the story he’d just be told. A whole world of weird and fantastical things AND humans active in it too, that sounded so cool. 

Luz nodded as she gave a slight swing of her hand, forming a light glyph in the air and then activating it. “Yup, gave me my own magical core and the whole deal. It wasn’t long after that that I started to figure out that I could manipulate and change the raw energy of things.” She demonstrated as she moved her finger around, changing the ball of light into a smiley face, then a copy of the crew’s mark, and finally to a heart, which she flung at Amity with a bit of a coy smirk. “I still use the Glyphs as a means of making channeling my intent easier and keeping it focused on what kind of magic I want it to be.” 

“How much was it?” Boscha asked, curiously. 

“Huh?” 

“Those weights. I’m curious, how much was it?” She asked, she would have honestly thought the human was exaggerating, if she wasn’t currently sitting on the same trunk that Luz had moved off of herself with one hand and no help. 

Luz blinked, not thinking they would focus on that. “Back then? Hmmm… I did ask Ranma not long after the excitement of having my magic back went down.” She paused for a moment to think. “I think it was about… 400?” She pondered. 

Willow spit out something she was drinking in shock. “Pounds!?” 

“Oh no, that was in Kilos. So close to 900 pounds.” Luz laughed. “Of course that was just the early stuff, moved into the tons way after that. What?” She blinked seeing them all looking at her like she was insane. 

“Luz… That’s nuts, you could walk around normally with almost a full ton on you?” Edric asked, feeling a bit inferior right now. Even Willow was starting to reevaluate her normal workout routine. 

“I wouldn’t say normally, at that time anyway, I felt sluggish and weighed down for sure.” She waved off. “I normally wear about 10 tons on me just for everyday stuff, was able to develop a weighted training shirt that could alter how much my body is affected by local gravity. Ranma loved that.” 

They all stared at her in shock for what felt like ages, until Willow raised her hand. “Can I get one?” She asked, still dumbfounded. 

“I wouldn’t mind one myself actually…” Boscha blushed slightly as she didn’t really want to ask, but that sounded like a great way to keep up with her own physical training, even when working on potions. 

“Sure, I just need some article of clothing you want me t-” She was quickly cut off as both girls summoned and quickly threw a pair of sports bras at her. Which she caught with her face. “Yeah…” She mumbled, pulling them off. “That will do, give me a day and I’ll have them done.” 

Amity, having been lost in thought with just how cut Luz would really look if she walked around with all that weight on, quickly shook her head to refocus. “Okay, this is all well and good, but we still have a problem Luz.” She quickly stood and pointed to the pile of lumber that used to be the portal door. “What do you expect me to tell the Emperor, now that you’ve destroyed the portal?” 

“Nothing.” Was all she responded with. 

“What? You can’t seriously think he’ll take that!” Amity yelled, did Luz think she was stupid or something. 

“Of course not.” The dark skinned human stated as she stood up, looking past Amity. “But you don’t need to tell him anything, after all, he’s already heard quite a bit.” 

Amity and the other’s eyes widened as they all noticed a familiar shadow cast from behind them. Amity slowly turned around and nearly fell back as she saw behind her. 

“Yes, it seems you’ve been up to many things while you were gone, young human.” Belos stated, standing over them, glowing blue eyes staring directly at Luz.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for this being a bit of a shorter chapter


	14. A Conflict of Trials

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As expected, Belos doesn't take the news of the portal being destroyed permanently this time well, and shows our favorited human just what that means. I do also want to thank a close friend of mine, Leviathantamer, for helping me put this chapter together and make an entertaining conflict between Luz and Belos!

The air was tense as Belos continued to stare down the returned human of the Boiling Isles. If the others hadn't been so distracted, they may have even noticed the subtle clashing of energy in the air, small and quick sparks that let off every now and then. 

The others backed up slowly in order to not draw Belos's attention, as Amity quickly moved forward. "My Emperor, I-" She tried to start, until Luz cut her off. 

"Belly! Long time no see, you're looking," Luz started, looking him up and down, "the same as I remember you. The full body robes, the gaudy golden mask horn thing, and that oh so lovely air of superiority that doesn't fit you. How've you been?" She asked with a grin, ignoring everyone else's looks of shock.

"Same as I remember you as well. A young woman with confidence abounds. It's a wonder how you haven't broken your neck from making these leaps and bounds." Belos replies, ignoring Luz's brazen attitude towards him.

Willow reached towards Luz to try and cover for her, but Emira grabbed her hand and quietly pointed to the energy in the air as the tense atmosphere was so strong that it was actually sparking.

"Couple ribs, few stab wounds, and some other injuries, but hey, if you don't take the leap, you'll never see how far you can go." She shrugged off his attempt at an insult. She did take a moment to look at him, for the first time able to actually feel the power of the being that stood before her. 

He reeked of raw stolen magic, she could see it slowly leaking off of him in a way that would normally be contained in any other magical being. It spoke a lot for just how far down the rabbit hole he'd gone over the years. 

"So, what can I get you? Tea, Coffee, maybe some hard Apple Blood? You look like you could use a stiff drink, loosen up those shoulders a bit." She continued to egg him on, knowing exactly why he was here.

"Enough with the idle chat. I'm taking my portal back." Belos says, summoning his staff and stamping it on the ground as his eyes blazing just a bit brighter.

Amity actively took a step back at that, knowing that things were about to not go well. 

"Ah yes, the portal..." Luz said, faking some worry as she brought her hands together and pointed them towards him. "See, about that..." She breathed through her teeth and then turned, pointing to the pile of wood nearby with her clasped hands. "It's a bit... Out of order from now on."

Belos saw the pile of wood and looked towards Amity. "Amity... is this true?" He asked with a carefully level tone.

Amity looked very nervous, honestly not wanting to answer, but there was little reason to even attempt to lie. She bowed her head as a sign of respect. "Yes sire, I attempted to stop it, but the portal is now void of any magic that had once been inside it." 

"Bingo, I told you before that I wasn’t giving it back." Luz smirked, loving that she got one up on the man. "Even if you put it back together this time, it would just be a normal door."

"Amity... you have failed both the Titan and myself gravely. So have you all." Emperor Belos said as he turned his head slightly towards them, the blazing eyes glaring at them from the side sending a bolt of fear through all of them.

Faster than the blink of an eye, several beams shot from his staff and struck all of them in the heart. An ominous red glow began in their chests, but it was already elevated to shining in Amity's chest.

The Unstable Magic that Belos had embedded into them began integrating itself into their bile sacs, corrupting their magic and making it unstable quickly. The more magic they had, the faster it would consume and corrupt. And when the fuel ran out, the Unstable Magic would disperse... **explosively**.

Amity's eyes shot wide as everything was catching up to her, not even getting a moment as she felt the spell take hold inside of herself and a burning feeling expand within her form. He had turned on her so quickly, a part of her was yelling that she shouldn't be surprised, none of them should. That didn't help the feeling of betrayal as her life was now close to an abrupt end. 

The worst part, she had just been able to reconnect with the one person in the world that had cared about her without question. The one person that had only just got back. The one currently in front of her, eyes filled with worry and determination as she brought an arm around her waist. "L-Luz, please... Ru-"

"Amity." She cut her off, raising an arm coated in the same magic as she had with the door before. "Trust me." She said in a soft, calming voice, before burying her arm directly into Amity's chest. 

The green haired woman's eyes shot wide, expecting pain and the sudden calling of the reaper, but there was nothing but a new warm feeling inside of her. She didn’t give any resistance as she felt that grow within her. 

Luz didn't take long to find the magic that Belos had attached to Amity and the others. She could feel Amity not fighting her, giving her the trust she needed to help her. With a tight grip she pulled, easily removing the wretched red colored raw magic from her bile sack, taking its intent with it. 

The action was something rather viscous, as Luz removing her arm from Amity sent a pink spray of magical energy with it. With a quick motion she twisted herself and Amity, holding the shorter woman close as she used the raw magic she'd pulled like a whip and launched it towards the others. 

It split into five ropes of magic, coating violet as each one latched into one of the other stunned and fear filled witches. The energy buried into them for just a moment before Luz pulled hard and dragged the same magic from them as she had Amity. The motion pulled it all back, forming into a massive ball in her hand as she glared at Belos. "Wrong move."

She clenched her fist down on the magic, condensing and altering it's form into blades of magic. Blades she threw out and shattered, flying at Belos at a rapid pace, intent on turning the emperor into a pin cushion.

The shards flew out and found themselves caught in a shield. Each shard that was caught in the shield made a concussive blast strong enough to erode the dirt around the shield and cause Belos' cape to flutter from the shockwaves moving the air.

The shards were held for barely more than a second before they all detonated into a cloud of red smoke simultaneously. "A vali-" He began to say. Wishing to congratulate her condescendingly.

He wouldn't get his chance to finish as that split second after, he'd find that Luz was on him, swinging a massive blade on his person at a quick pace. 

The blade itself was about half of her actual size, a wide black blade with a split tip, surrounding an aquamarine center that had the runes spelling "Witch Blade" in glowing purple. It's hit Hilt and guard was a deep brass and gold mixture leading into an aquamarine gem embedded in the pommel. 

That wasn't the only thing as it's split tip held the obvious sign of a lightning glyph, crackling inside of it. Imbuing the blade with electricity as she swung it down on him.

Belos brought his staff up to meet the blade and an enchantment was the only thing that saved him from meeting his end at that moment as the strength magic copied Luz's strength and his own electric magic worked to counter hers.

The result was an absolutely terrifying display to watch as lightning crackled and sparked, leaping away from the clash and nearly striking the bystanders, a massive pressure wave emanating from them, threatening to upend nearby trees.

Though it only lasted for little over two seconds, it felt like hours went by as the two glared at each other before finally the electricity burst explosively and sent them both backwards.

As Emperor Belos finally stopped skidding on the ground and leaving a trail of where his feet had dug in, he chuckled. "Handling of raw magic, ingenuity with spells, and tremendous physical might... I've learned everything I needed here, Ms. Noceda. I doubt this will be our last encounter." He said as he stood up straight and locked eyes with Luz.

With the final word being his, his body seemed to fall apart as he disappeared in his unnerving style.

Luz glared at the place he had once been, anger rolling off of her to the point that if she had Conquers Haki, it would have probably shattered the land around her by now. She raised her blade upward. "No, it certainly won't be." She growled, stabbing the blade into the ground, and pulling her hands together. 

A golden energy forming in them as she quickly created a glyph none of the others could see and slammed it down on the ground beneath her. In a matter of seconds, the glyph set and grew, spreading not only out to cover the Owl House, but far further. 

The people of Bonesbourgh found themselves shocked as a mass of golden light shot out to encompass the city. Once it had the full city within its perimeter, a dome of golden light enclosed over top, closing at the top most point and showing the mark of the Arc Crew for only a moment, before it all faded away. 

Once done, Luz stood back up, shaking some of the golden magic from her hand and freeing the blade from the earth. She stored it away back in Spike's pocket dimension and turned to the others, clearly not happy in the slightest. "You won't get so lucky next time either." She growled.

There was a brief silence following that whole debacle. Finally, it was Boscha who spoke up. "Okay... what just happened?!" She asked, finally having recovered from the feeling of almost dying.

Luz, taking a deep breath to calm herself, and not doing great at that at the moment, looked to her. "Gonna have to be more specific, a lot just happened in the last minute or two." She said honestly.

"More like the last 10 seconds." Emira said as she pulled herself out of her stupor at the sound of Boscha's voice. "Did... did we just get fired by the way?"

"No." Amity said grimly. She'd recovered first but had stayed quiet till now. "Belos used us. A testing ground for Luz's abilities, a lure to get Luz where he wanted, and a reminder to us that just because Luz is back doesn't mean that we can just break away from him so easily to join another rebellion." Amity explained, she knew exactly what kind of witch the Emperor was.

"Yeah, he made that pretty clear with his exit. It's annoying as hell that I didn't react fast enough to stop that, but I never got the hang of Future Sight with Observation Haki." Luz growled, mad at herself for not training to get such a useful ability. Not that it would have aided her much after losing her cool. 

"Okay..." Gus started, shaking his head and throwing his hands to the side. "Baring you just casually dropping future sight and the almost dying thing, real fun that... What was that golden dome thing!?" He pointed to the now cleared sky. 

"Territory Glyph." Luz said with a shrug, like that explained anything.

Edric picked himself up off the ground, having landed rather harshly when Luz saved him along with the others with those ropes. "Territory? Like... you own the place now?" He asked.

Willow shuddered as she entered the conversation. "Still chilling seeing just how ready he was to let us die." She said, but she knew and all of them knew that Belos was willing to do this. They've known ever since they became fully fledged Witches and joined his Covens.

Luz gave a bit of a wiggle of her hand. "Eh, kind of, it's more of an intent monitoring thing. Let's me know if someone or something is coming into the perimeter with the intent to do what I marked with it harm and can let me get to that point in a hurry." She explained. "I used it on all the islands that were under my watch back on Great Blue. Good way of getting there fast if need be."

"Okay, so you still have a ton more to explain then... You had territories back there? What kind of pirate crew were you on!?" Gus yelled, partly just trying to keep his mind together on all of this.

"It's... quite a long story." Amity said as she glanced back to Luz. "The short of it is that some Pirate Crews became Pirate Fleets and some of those fleets were strong enough to rival national militaries. So battles of control over the Grand Line became a thing." She explained.

Boscha gave a short laugh. "Sounds like my kind of system." She said and a couple others just sighed at her antics.

"To be fair, I'm sure you guys would all survive pretty well on Great Blue." Luz said with a bit of a chuckle, before going over to Amity and hugging her. 

The hug was a bit tighter than she intended, as the reality of what almost happened hit her. She whispered softly to the shorter woman in her arms. "I'm sorry I let that happen... I was so scared I was going to lose you again..." Her voice trembled just slightly at the mere thought of it.

Amity returned the hug, not letting some small breathing problems get in the way of this. "It's alright, Luz. Once you came for me, I knew that I'd be safe." She said with a small and honest smile.

-

Back in the throne room of Belos's castle, Kikimora looked as she felt her emperor's presence return. "Welcome back, my Liege." She bowed towards his returning form. "I trust that things went well for you?" She asked him, sure to receive an affirmative as normal.

"Leave me." He simply said, and she could hear the Titan's heart pounding as his words came out. Even in cases where things didn't go according to plan, he always gave her at least a negative answer. This... this result might be something that has a 'minimum safe distance'.

Her eyes widened. "O-of course, sire. At once." She said, quickly rushing out of the throne room, ready to pass on to any nearby guards to clear the area a bit more.

Once the door slammed shut. He began to walk towards his throne to ruminate on what he learned. But as he stepped close, the sound of clattering metal met his ears, and the vision in his right eye was no longer obstructed.

His eyes drifted towards the ground, half of his mask had fallen off. His mask was cleaved in two...

It wasn't a clean cut, not the result of an edged blade. Rather, of the shockwave of such a blade. His memory immediately went back to the clash. Luz's blade had met his staff, but the edge went on as a blade of wind that shattered his personal defenses.

He was nearly grievously injured.

As he lowered himself to grab the mask half. He began chuckling to himself. The pounding beat of the heart could be heard through the whole castle now. Luz Noceda had turned out to be a much more powerful foe than he realized. He picked up the mask half...and then threw it hard enough at the throne room door that it shattered to pieces. 

"Okay... **I'll play**." He said as he sat in his throne, echoing his words from all those years ago when they first fought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's right, I gave our favorite Bisexual witchy pirate a big ass magic sword! Even made into a black blade with the help of a few of her crewmates. Here's a link to the design https://bigkyle990.tumblr.com/post/634659017644457984/arc-pirates-a-witchy-pirate-chapter-14


	15. Time to Recover

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A few days have passed and Luz moves forward with how she will handle things, as Amity gains a very surprising assignment from the Emperor. I'd like to once again thank Leviathantamer(who's slowly becoming a co-author) for his help in getting this chapter together.

“Well, you had a hell of an encounter, huh?” Jaune’s voice stated over the transponder snail, having just finished listening to Luz’s explanation of the encounter with Belos. 

It had been about three days since their little spar and things had been rather calm in that time period. Amity had decided to take a few day leave of absence from coven work, something Belos had been fine with granting. It seemed he understood a person’s need to... reset, after you nearly murdered them. 

Such a kind man. 

Luz had been spending the time doing her normal workout routine in the morning, while also working on trying to complete and refine her newest glyph. Much like before, she was finding the walls between dimensions hard to break through, as the natural order wasn’t very fond of someone trying to bypass it. At the moment, she still wasn’t sure if it was a question of power required or another unknown factor she wasn’t seeing. But she’d been working with Spike and Ahsoka to find what information they could rather quickly. 

“Yeah, the old man’s gonna be a pain in the ass, the others had told me they’ve been working quietly from the inside to try and start changing things over the last few years. It’s been slow, but picked up as they took higher positions.” Luz explained, having been surprised by the amount of work they’d done while she was gone. Sure it wasn’t a lot, but slowly the idea of mixing magics was starting to filter into the public interest over the years. So much so, that even Belos couldn’t deny the masses its usefulness, even if it meant giving up his own liberty on being the only one that was allowed to do so. 

Of course the process was still slow and the work to remove the sealing process would take a long time. It wasn’t as if they could simply wait out Belos, as they had discovered that the Emperor was extending his own life by his consumption of raw magic and connection to the Titan’s heart. 

“Have you considered just going full coup on him? I mean war isn’t always the best option, but it can be effective as we’ve seen.” Jaune offered up as a means of moving things along. 

Luz sighed. “As much as I hate to admit it, I don’t think I can take the old man on my own. There’s certainly still a want for people to be free of the coven system, but many are afraid of what he would do should another rebellion start. Even my friends are wary, none of them were even remotely surprised that Belos tried to kill them the other day.” She explained shaking her head. 

The snail nodded understandingly as Jaune contemplated that. “I suppose that does make sense. Still, if we can complete a form of travel between dimensions, you’ll certainly get backing from the crew as needed.” He assured her. “We’ve already got a few people dealing with issues that got left behind. Adora’s dealing with the Horde problem as best as she can right now, Midoriya went back to a good couple of problems that were already building, and of course Spike’s world has some tyrannical despot attacking almost every other week.” Jaune listed off. “And that’s just a few.” 

Luz sat back on the couch and sighed. “So what you’re saying is, is that I should try to bump up the time table on getting this done more than I already have been?” She asked with a bit of a tired chuckle. 

“It would help for sure if you three could pull things together. Ranma says that shit is going down in the Minato Ward where Usagi is, something about a massive tent and people having mirrors come out of them… I don’t know and he’s not sure either.” Jaune stated, really not sure how to explain that one. “But he’s pretty sure that this is our Usagi at this point.” 

“Oh?” Luz raised an eyebrow. “What makes him so sure?” 

“Bout a week ago, she was being attacked by some monster on her own that could call up clones of itself. She got pushed back into a corner and ended up releasing Conquers Haki on them unconsciously. She didn’t seem to know what happened since then, but she’s been acting oddly ever since.” Jaune explained simply. 

“That’s a pretty fair guess she’s our Usagi then.” Luz giggled and then took a look at the time. “Whoops, sorry Captain, got to get going. I’ll keep you updated on my side of things.” With an affirmative, she hung up and put the Transponder Snail away as Eda walked into the room, still in her casual home wear. 

“I don’t think I’m ever going to get over you talking to that crew of yours through a snail…” Eda said with a bit of a tired yawn as she sipped on her morning apple blood. 

“There are crows here that double as phones like in the human world… What’s the difference?” Luz asked with a chuckle. 

“Fair point. So what was the rush anyway? Last I checked you didn’t have much to do lately.” Eda asked curiously, it wasn’t like Luz was going to school anymore. 

Luz laughed as she stood up and stretched. “I’m giving Willow and Boscha back their clothing today, took a bit longer than I expected, but I got the enchantment done for them.” 

Eda took another sip from her cup. “I overheard what they asked for, but it still didn’t make sense to me. You enchanted those clothes with ‘gravity’? So what, they can fly now?”

"Nah, it doesn't work that way." She shook her head. "This one is specifically keyed to press down on you. So it's like wearing weighted clothing without actually needing the weights. It took forever to perfect the enchantment to only affect the wearer and nothing else." She grinned. "Almost went through a ship or two getting this one figured out."

"Huh. So it's for working out?" Eda asks as she watched her sister enter the room and start going through her morning routine as well.

"Bingo." Luz grinned, while waving to Lilith. "Power and Strength wasn't exactly the end all be all of Great Blue, but it certainly helped to be able to bench press an island."

Lilith paused as she looked over to them. "Please tell me you're exaggerating..." 

The dark skinned woman held up her hand to pinch the air just slightly. "Tiny bit, I mean I never got that far, but I've met plenty that could for sure."

Eda chuckled at her sister's reaction. "Sounds like a really fun place. Think you'll miss it?" Eda asked, taking a full drink of apple blood as she waited for Luz's response.

Luz paused hearing that question. It was something she wasn't sure she thought about much. 

Of course the reason for that was that she was kind of thrust back into a bit of a confrontation and of course out of a war. "Honestly, I'm not sure. Living there for so long did make it start to feel like home, though I feel like it was more of the crew itself that created that feeling. As far as we know, everyone from the main crew has made it back to where they came from. The craziness of some of the places and people on the islands we protected, I'll certainly miss. Though the only thing I think I would go back to for, would be to see if that crazy Straw Hat actually became the Pirate King or not." She giggled. "There really isn't much waiting for me back there, you know?"

"That's fair." Eda says conceding the point and finishing her cup. Eda could definitely understand that. She felt the same way about the Human World after all. Sure she had some crazy hijinks over there. But ultimately her home was on the Boiling Isles.

Lilith meanwhile came back from the kitchen with a cup in hand. "So, what do you plan to do? You've gained the power of the portal, made yourself the number one target of Emperor Belos, and have all of this strength. Surely you're not just going to lounge around now."

Luz sighed and rubbed the back of her head. "Well I need to actually perfect the Glyph, it's not much use to me right now if I can't actually break past the wall between dimensions. As for the target part, taking him out is still a goal in one way or another." She admitted. "That's the rough part though, I know I won't be able to take him on my own, not without dying with him anyway. And I can see just how deeply he's dug into the people of the Isles while I've been gone."

"Indeed, after you disappeared, Emperor Belos really laid heavily into improving his propaganda. Most of the townsfolk of Boneborough won't appreciate your presence once they realize who you are. A few may even try to attack you." Lilith confirmed. Not that she and her sister didn't do their best to fight it, but it was definitely an uphill battle that they weren't really winning.

Eda thought about it. "So right now your game plan is just to try and master that portal glyph and then bring down Belos?" She asked, clearly pondering something.

"That's the best I got right now, yep." She admitted.

"Well then I can tell you that your plan's going to fail." Eda said with a big grin and Lilith nearly choked on her tea as her sister's declaration wasn't exactly what she was thinking was going to happen.

Luz blinked and then laughed. "Can't say I'm surprised by that line or that I don't agree."

"Tell me, kid. What was your plan to master that portal? Staying cooped up here at the Owl House, training day in and day out unless something disrupts you, right?" Eda asked, guessing at Luz's actions from what she'd seen of Luz so far.

"That had been my initial idea, yes." She nodded, choosing to sit back down on the couch. "Now though, I'm starting to see that may not be the right move." She said honestly.

Eda gave Luz a trickster's grin as she watched her sit on the couch next to Lilith. "You know it! And that's because you've been so wrapped up in the doom and gloom of war and managing territories on Great Blue that you've forgotten something absolutely critical to being a Witch."

Lilith raised an eyebrow at her sister's antics as she drank her tea. But she was smiling too. She hadn't seen her sister this energetic in years.

"Being Wild?" Luz asked, grinning herself a bit.

"More than that!" Eda said, hopping over and squishing Luz's cheeks. "You forgot how to be Luz, the Human." She stated almost seriously. "Your mind is too one-track right now. We've gotta find you some shenanigans to get into, because the Luz that I know worked best when she explored every possible limitation and let her mind free."

She released Luz and took a step back. "So, from now on I'm forbidding you from working on that Portal Glyph for any more than three to four hours a day or I'll kick you out myself."

Luz blinked, looking a bit shocked by that. Part of her wanted to argue, she wasn't just working on this Glyph for the sake of it. She was working on it to try and be there to help the people she'd come to see as her family and to see her own family again. 

That was going to be her argument, until she remembered that none of her crew was weak by any standard of the word. They'd be fine and her mother... She didn't even know what her mother had gone through these past 7 years, but she was sure she wouldn't want to see her daughter turning up stressed and having overworked herself. 

"Fine, but you got to help me find things to do then." She stuck her tongue out at Eda. "So you don't get to be lazy anymore, sitting around and drinking apple blood all day like some old woman."

Eda looked offended by that. "Like 'some old woman', I'll have you know that I am Eda, the Owl Lady! I may not be the most powerful witch on the Boiling Isles anymore, but I am far from just 'some old woman'." Eda said proudly with a smile.

Lilith smiled into her cup quietly. Eda had been so different since Luz left, she was losing more and more of herself. She had done her best to keep the darkness that had formed around her sister from growing when Luz had been pulled through the portal. Watched as the days went by and she continued blaming herself, cursing herself for not stopping it, and locking her feelings away. But now, Luz was really back, and Lilith couldn't be happier watching the real Eda come back with her.

-

Amity took a moment, standing outside of the Emperor's throne room. She still needed this moment, having been gone for even just a few days didn't take away the feeling of near death she'd escaped just days ago. The pressure around her grew, even if others didn't quite feel it. 

After all, she was about to represent herself to the man who had no issue throwing her away at the drop of a hat. 

With one last calming breath, she righted herself and entered into the Emperor's throne room, to present her return.

The doors opened with the familiar clunks of the locks being lifted and the sound of machinery met her ears as she saw the beating heart of the Titan. Sitting on the throne as if nothing had ever gone wrong, was Emperor Belos himself.

The throne room was rather empty of guards, but there was one figure standing next to him. An Emperor's Agent. Even as the Head of the Emperor's Coven, Amity still didn't know a lot about them. A secretive group hand-selected by Emperor Belos himself. The truest enforcers of his will.

"Greetings, Amity. I trust that you have rested well?" Emperor Belos asked as the doors closed behind Amity.

She came in and bowed to the man. "Of course, my liege. I thank you again for granting me the time off I needed."

"Now, as the head of my Coven, I do trust that you'll be ready to perform your duties again, correct?" He asked, there was no trace of malice nor contempt in his voice. If anything he sounded 'glad' that Amity had returned, one of his many fronts as usual.

She pulled herself upright, not sure if he actually cared that she had returned, but wasn't about to focus on that. No she had something else to present to him, that he hadn't given her the chance to before. 

"Yes sir, and I would like to provide you with some information for the fate of the portal. A piece I wanted to tell you before..." She paused, centering herself. "Before your interaction with the Human." She knew it was best to not mention Luz's name right away.

Belos' tone carefully remained that calm and 'glad' tone. "Oh yes, your last mission. Is there a chance that you didn't fail entirely?" He asked.

"No sire, not entirely." She confirmed. "While the Human, Luz Noceda, did destroy the door itself. She did so by taking the core of it's magic from the shell of the door. Much like you witnessed yourself that day." She advised him, drawing a circle and calling up a piece of paper, one given to her by Luz herself, and held it out to him. 

On it, showed the Glyph design that Luz had created for the Portal. "From it's raw core, she created this new Glyph, one that she stated should allow for a Portal to be made without the need of the door itself." 

She still didn't like giving this information over to Belos, but Luz had no worries about him knowing of it. She had explained that since she had been the one to make the Glyph, without the full understanding of the magic that once laid inside it, by Belos or even the Titan. He would struggle with completing and utilizing it just as she had.

Belos didn't move in any way that would betray his emotions as he took the paper. "I see... Thank you for this information. Even in failure, you still emerge with a shred of success. You are far and away one of the greatest Heads of the Emperor's Coven." Belos said, placing the drawing of the glyph on the arm of his throne.

"I serve to do my best for you and the coven, sire." She bowed once more. "Is there anything that specifically needs to be done, beyond my normal duties within the coven?"

"There actually is." Belos says. "I am hereby temporarily relieving you from all field operations." He announces. "You will still need to handle the paperwork, but your presence upon the Boiling Isles is needed elsewhere."

She looked to him, shocked. "Um, of course, sir. May I ask where?"

"Why, at Luz's side, of course." Belos says as though the answer were clear as day. But even through his mask, Amity could sense his grin, knowing how this sounded.

Amity's eyes shot wide at that. "You, you intend for me to keep an eye on her?" She asked, though she knew the answer. There was no way he was just letting her be close to Luz without a purpose

"No, no, no... you misunderstand what is in the best interest for the Titan. Her strength and magical capabilities are a danger more than ever to the Titan’s will." Emperor Belos began explaining as he stood from his chair and moved to stand at Amity's side.

Once standing there, he brought up his hand which glowed red with his magic as visions began appearing in front of them, visions of Luz clashing with Belos and his forces. "Can you see all the destruction that would be wrought from our fighting?" He asked.

Amity felt her blood starting to run cold. "O-of course, sire. That became clear during your clash back at the Owl House." She admitted, hoping against hope that he wasn't suggesting what she was thinking he was.

He nods "So, I want you to show her the Boiling Isles that you helped create." Belos says, his tone seemingly kind. "Right now, her mind swarms with ideas of combatting me. Show her that there's another way. She need not be converted to believing that I am a herald of the Titan's Will. We both know that would never stop her." He says, turning to her.

"So instead of showing her the world that I built, I want you to show her the world that you built." He said, his tone conveying hope. "If she wants to destroy my world, then so be it. But I hope that she still cares for you enough not to destroy the one that you made."

She felt herself calm at that sentiment. Oh, he was still using her for his own gains, but he wasn't asking for Luz's blood, that was something to be happy about. 

She gave a soft nod. "Of course, sire. I fully understand. I hope she cares enough to not destroy things as well." 

She knew what he meant by the Boiling Isles she'd created, after all. The current allowance of mixing magics was formed by her and her friends' efforts. It would do well for Luz to see that as well. 

She was worried about the dark skinned human focusing so hard on her current goals as well. Even in the last few days she had used to rest, she found Luz hard at work. Focusing on the Portal, training her body further, and even seeming to dive back into studying things about the Isles. It was so unlike the Luz she used to know. She had always been driven, even when they were young, but this was far different. She didn’t seem to be leaving much to allow for her own freetime. Something that could have only been forged by the life she had lived over the last near decade. 

Never knowing when a new fight would come and having to be ready for it, that was something that could change anyone. 

"However, there is a catch." Emperor Belos said, interrupting her thoughts to herself. "Just as I know that your connection with her will bring Luz Noceda's rebellious nature to more manageable levels, I am also aware that this same connection can be used to corrupt your noble pursuits." He said and gestured to the Agent who finally approached.

"One of my agents shall follow you, at a distance if need be. If it looks like you're stepping out of line, she will save you from the human's corruptive influence." He explained and the Agent bowed before the two of them. "Otherwise, she is also at your disposal, so long as said tasks do not interfere with monitoring you."

She nodded. "I understand, sire. Is there anything else needed of me then?" She asked, having no sign of shock that they would be under watch. There was a history there after all and he wasn't wrong.

"There is not, you are both dismissed." Emperor Belos said as he moved back to his chair.

Amity gave one last bow and turned to leave, trying to pull together her emotions on this assignment.


	16. The Agent's Secret

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We found Luz and Eda making plans to get Luz something all Witches need as Amity makes her way to the Owl House with her new friend in tow.

Most of the morning had been spent with Luz and Eda working on a list of things to do to have some fun around the Isles. Luz was looking over what they had come up with so far, and blinking a bit at the top most part of the list. "A Staff? Do you really think I need one?" She asked honestly. While it would be cool, she didn't think it was necessary with her having her devil fruit powers and her sword.

"Yes, you need one. What self-respecting Witch out of school doesn't have their own Staff?" Eda asks, this really was an obvious choice for her. Even more obvious of a thing to do than her second suggestion.

"Well yeah I guess, but I'm not exactly your typical witch anymore." Luz chuckled. "I'm just saying, what would the benefit be, outside of getting a cute little buddy for life? Hey! Is the Bat Queen still around?" She asked curiously.

Eda nods with a smile. "Oh yeah, Lily and I took pains to make sure that Belos never had the chance to focus on her." 

"I still don't know how in the world you managed to convince Bigfoot to come back to the Boiling Isles for that plan." Lilith said as she was watching her sister and Luz brainstorm shenanigans for Luz to do while working on the portal.

Eda's smile turned into a nefarious grin. "I had some... help in persuading him." She said ominously.

"My only question is how you found a way back to the human world to do that?" Luz raised a finger.

"Bigfoot has a network that he only he can use." Eda answered simply. "It's how he disappears behind trees so quickly."

Lilith nodded "It's part of why he fled from the Boiling Isles too, Emperor Belos was very insistent on learning how he did it."

"Ah, got you. Those pour Theorists, well anyway, we should so put visiting Bat Quean on the list." She said, as she added that herself. "Now back to the main question, what would the staff do for me exactly?" She leaned back and took a drink from her cup, some stashed a way sake from Great Blue, good stuff.

"Oh right." Eda said, pulling herself back on track. "Well you already nailed the first positive. Getting a cute animal friend for life. But secondly, Staffs are amazingly powerful and grow in strength as you do." Eda points out, summoning Owlbert to her side as an example. "Your staff will generate roughly about a tenth of what you can pull off normally, which helps a lot, especially as you get stronger."

"I guess that does make sense, so what do I have to do for that anyway? I never exactly made it that far in school before the whole portal thing." She pointed out.

"To be fair, the Coven School system wouldn't have taught you. Not by the time you rolled around, kid." Eda remarked.

Lilith nodded to confirm. "Only about five years after I graduated, Emperor Belos declared that the wood used to craft a Staff was being used too heavily and was at risk of disappearing entirely." She explained a bit of a bad taste in her mouth as she was part of the Emperor's Coven at that point and never bothered looking into it when she was the head of the Coven, always leaving it to the Plant Coven.

"Worst part is, he may have been right, but for all the wrong reasons. Belos has a lumber camp that has established itself around the Wonder Lumber Woods. I always thought that he was harvesting it for his own gain." Eda stated with a soured look. "Plus, a Staffless Witch is a lot less powerful and a lot easier to capture since most Witches never learn how to fly without a Staff."

"Oh I can fly already, figured that out in the first year." She said a bit off handedly before refocusing. "So I take it that means we're paying this lumber camp a visit then?" She grinned.

"Wait-wait-wait. You can't just drop that on me. How did you learn to fly without a Staff?!" Eda asked, stopping the whole conversation for this.

Luz laughed at that and quickly drew a glowing sky blue glyph, only about as large as her hand for this demo. It had the design of a pair of wings within it as it held in place. She picked up her cup and placed it on the floating glyph and started flying it around the kitchen. "Levitation Glyph, very handy and can be made big enough to hold and fly something as big as a Galleon. Scared the crap out of the Navy once when I just flew the ship out of a fight. That was fun." She grinned and took her cup off the glyph.

Eda gave a rather discontent face. "Still not as good as a staff. But I guess that's adequate." Eda said.

Lilith giggled at her sister's disgruntled answer. "It's quite the glyph you figured out, Luz."

"Thank you, I found it very useful many times." She smiled before sticking her tongue out at Eda. "So, back on track again, are we raiding this lumber camp or is there another place we can find the wood?"

"Oh yeah we're raiding that lumber camp!" Eda said excitedly.

Lilith just facepalmed. "Or we could ask Willow for some of the stockpile. She is your friend, right?"

"Yeah, a friend that's under Emperor Belos' rule. Who knows what could happen to Willow if she gives Luz some Wonder Lumber." Eda points out.

"Plus, breaking in and taking things we aren't supposed to is way more fun. Pirate or not." Luz added in her own two cents.

"Alright then, so we're getting Luz a staff first. Visiting the Bat Queen third... what else can we do?" Eda asked, rubbing her chin as she pondered this.

"Could go exploring around the Isles? I mean we never got to the head before, right?" Luz offered. "Wait, what's number two?" She blinked, not having seen it.

Eda grinned "Find you a girlfriend. Or a boyfriend. I saw you check'em both out every now and then." She said with finger guns and a tongue click.

Luz blushed and face palmed. "Well yeah, I've had a few boyfriends and girlfriends... But I'm already working on seeing if I can rekindle things with Amity. So I've been working on that one." She admitted. 

"I can vouch for that." Lilith spoke up. "That move with taking the corrupting magic out of her probably helped a bit. Very romantic." She smirked as Luz covered her face again, seeming to remember how she had held Amity in that.

"Alright, alright. We've already got three things on the agenda. I think that's enough for now." Eda said, chuckling at the flustered Luz. "Shall we head out?"

"Yep, I'm ready for some fun." She said, a bit quickly as she stood up to head for the door. Very much to get her mind off of how flustered she was.

Once she opened the door, she immediately felt Amity's presence coming up the road.

"Hmmm, we may have a roadblock on that plan Eda." She admitted as she looked towards where Amity was coming from. She gained an odd expression, as she could feel another presence, one oddly similar.

"Why, what's going on?" Eda asked. As she walked up to the door to see what Luz was seeing, Amity rounded the corner along with one of the Emperor's Agents. "Eugh... Amity coming to ruin the fun..."

"Maybe, we'll certainly find out." Luz said as she headed out towards Amity and called to her. "Yo! What brings you around? I thought you were back to work today, cielo?" She grinned. "Not here to arrest me already are you?"

"Oh! Luz! You're already here. I mean, of course you're here, you do live here... kind of. But I mean I was expecting to need to knock on your door, because that's how you normally- I'm just going to shut up now." Amity said, stumbling over her words. She was actually rehearsing how she was going to break the news to Luz in her head when Luz met her.

"No no." Luz grinned, leaning in to her a bit. "Keep going, you're so cute when you're going into panic mode." She teased.

"Luz!" Amity shouted, blushing heavily as she took a step back. She took a deep breath. "I'm here to tell you about my next assignment from Emperor Belos himself."

"Ah, so you are working." She said, faking disappointment. "Should have guessed with your tag-along." She looked towards the masked agent, still looking at her oddly. Something about them was really distracting.

"Kind of... the Emperor's newest assignment for me is... to accompany you. The agent is monitoring me to make sure that I don't fall to your 'corruptive' ideals." Amity says with big air quotes on that bit and a roll of her eyes.

"That right? Well I'm not too surprised by that... The agent part, assigning you to me is a bit weird..." She said, sounding distracted as she got closer to the agent, looking at them closely. "Not near as weird as you though." She started, poking their mask slightly.

The agent didn't react at all to the prodding. Like... not even moving anything more than their neck muscles. In fact, as she looked over the agent, the weirdness just kept stacking.

Their aura was like Amity's but... duller, way duller. Their breathing was synced with Amity's. Even their heartbeat was exactly like Amity's.

Noticing that, Luz's eyes gained a much more scrutinizing look to them. "Hmmm..." She raised her hand and gave a slightly strong flick to it's shoulder, not enough that it would break or even bruise, but it would certainly sting.

The agent finally reacted with movement in regards to the stinging pain in their shoulder... and so did Amity in the same way. "Ow, is there a zapfly somewhere around here?" She asked, not realizing what had happened just yet.

"Ah Belly... I hate you, but you're a clever bastard." Luz mumbled, knowing exactly what was going on now.

"What?" Amity asked, focusing her attention on Luz again.

"You know what a voodoo doll is, right Amity?" Luz asked, looking back to her.

"You mean that whole idea of connecting someone's vitality to a figurine of some kind?" Amity asked, she was pretty sure she knew about that ancient practice.

"Bingo." She nodded before looking back to the Agent. "This is pretty much the same thing. Only it can move. I'm guessing it's orders are to attack me if you start getting 'corrupted'?"

Amity blinked and then began to recall "I don't think that's what Emperor Belos said..." She stated "I think his specific words were to 'rescue' me."

"Knowing him, that could be anything goes to do so..." Luz shook her head. "I'm sure his plan was hoping that when you started leaning into my way of thinking, that this would attack and if I were to hurt it. Well... It would be you I'd be hurting instead." She guessed and shook her head. "Either hoping that I'd end up killing you by mistake and going into some kind of blind rage, or backing off enough so that it could kill me instead. I'm banking on the latter. The clever dick."

Amity looked to the agent. With a single spin of her finger, a circle enveloped the agent. "Agent, report. Is this true?" She asked and the agent at first tried to resist the effect of the circle, only to give in rather quickly, nodding.

"Looks like I'll be staying on my best behavior for a bit. Damn, that ruins a few things..." Luz grumbled, doing a good job of suppressing her anger right now.

Amity gave a side glance to Luz. "Maybe not... if this doll is as suicidal as it confirmed, he can't have put anything too important into it." She said, snapping her fingers and the circle began glowing again. "Agent, report. Are you capable of relaying information to Emperor Belos?" She asked.

The agent tried to fight the spell again, but failed just as utterly as the first time, shaking its head 'No'.

"That's good to know at least, I just mean not doing something to trigger it's 'rescue' response. Raiding the Wonder Lumber camp may trigger that." She admitted.

"Wait, you're planning on raiding the Lumber camp?" Amity asked in surprise.

Luz nodded. "Yup, was just about to head that way, since Eda wants me to get a Staff." She shrugged.

"You do realize you could just ask Willow right?" Amity points out. "She's the head of the Plant Coven after all."

"Eda gave a good point that Willow could get in trouble for just handing some over, plus raiding the place is much more fun." Luz grinned.

"That... yeah, that's actually a good point." Amity said, and then turned around. "Agent, is there any way for you to let me know if what I'm about to do is going to require you to rescue me?" She asked.

The agent considered it for a moment and nodded.

"Does letting me go ahead and steal some wood count?" Luz asked.

It made some sounds, like someone trying to speak. but not really knowing how. Amity sighed at hearing that, putting her hand to her face. "He probably didn't expect me to do anything more than give it some orders. Poor thing..."

"You'd be really adorable if it wasn't for the purpose you were made for. Hmmm let me try something." Luz mumbled, drawing out some of her own magic, raw and unfocused this time. She formed it into a small ball and let it towards the Agent. 

The orb floated towards it before it absorbed in, giving it just a bit more magic to itself. 

"There, that may help give it a few more functions."

Once the orb was absorbed, both Amity and the Agent became wracked with pain, falling to the ground and curling up as their muscles spasmed. Finally, the Agent managed to get on their hands and knees and throw up a technicolor soup of some kind of magic acid. "Tampering... detected... Removing unacceptable modifications... complete..." It said and then fell over onto its side.

Amity got up, breathing heavily. "Agh... of course he has a tampering protection system in place. At least it managed to keep its speech."

Luz bent down and went to help Amity up. "Sorry about that, I should have thought it would have some kind of protections in it..." The dark haired woman frowned, mad that she hadn't thought of that possibility. 

She then looked to it. "Do you think it's knocked out for a bit?"

Amity made a magic circle and swung it over the agent's body. The circle then turned into a report. Amity took a look at it. "I... think so. This thing's body is mostly clay so it's hard to tell."

"Then I think it's best we move quickly to go ahead and get what I need. Hey Eda! You ready to go or what!?" Luz called back into the Owl House.

"I've been ready, kid." Eda said with a grin. "I was just watching you and Amity play around."

Amity's checks were tinged a bit red at realizing that someone else saw her interaction with Luz. "It's rude to eavesdrop!" She shoots off and Eda just waves her off. "Also, I don't know if I can go with you. It'd be a bit bad for me if I helped you raid the Camp."

"Oh I know." Luz smiled, moving in close to kiss her on the forehead. "We'll do something together after the raid, mi cielo. See you when we get back." She grinned, jumping back and making a levitation glyph, which she landed on and flew off, riding through the air as if she was on a surfboard.

"Objective Number Two is on its way to being completed." Eda said out loud to herself with a grin.

"Wait, what's objective number two?" Amity asked blushing like mad from the kiss and feeling it was connected to her.

Eda just cackled "See ya around, lovebird." She said and she took off on her staff.


	17. The Green Cloak

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luz and Eda make a rather quick raid on the lumber camp, that results in Luz learning a bit about the strange demon that is the Green Cloak.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Continued thanks to my friend Tamer for helping me out with each of theses recent chapters, I'd add him to the Co-creator section, but he doesn't have an AO3 account lol

The flight towards the lumber camp didn't take that long for the two, though Luz had been showing off a bit as they flew over town, actually using her glyph to grind along a few buildings and one of the ribs. Making a few remarks about how she could do some cool tricks with it. 

Which only got her comments about being a show off back from Eda. That only made her laugh in return.

They were coming up on the left shoulder, one of the more forested areas on the isles as Luz looked to Eda. "Okay, so where's the camp at exactly?"

Eda looked around. "It should be pretty easy to find. Wonder Lumber is one of the most mystical materials on the Boiling Isles. Back in my day it used to light up the left shoulder every night." She said, however it was pretty hard to see right now. Probably because it was daytime.

"Plus, there's no telling what Belos actually did with the woods. Although my best guess is that there's only a couple trees left, no more than 30." Eda guessed as she scanned the ground below.

"'Back in my day' huh?" Luz asked as she was looking around as well. "You really are turning into an old lady." She teased. "So are we talking about some kind of colorful sparkle?" She asked flipping her glyph upside down as she flew, staying stuck to it in a sitting pose. "Maybe a rainbow of colors, or somethi-"

Eda and Luz came to a stop as they saw the Wonder Lumber Yard. There was very clearly a controlled growth of the trees within the confines of the walls of the lumber yard where guards patrolled. However, part of that wall had been absolutely destroyed.

The cause of that was pretty obvious, the Wonder Lumber Trees had spread out of the compound explosively, growing wildly in every direction from the point of the broken wall, complete with some kind of mega-tree growing at the edge of the Wonder Lumber forest.

It had to be at least 100 acres of forest, a far cry from the controlled growth in the compound.

"Woah... something tells me that trying to contain that forest didn't exactly go to Belos' plan..." Eda said as she looked over all of it.

"I'd say he's doing a pretty poor job at it honestly." Luz chuckled as her glyph flipped back over. "Okay, so how much do we need exactly?" She looked over to Eda, not really knowing how much she used to make Owlbert. "You only told me you needed a branch for yours, but never said how big the branch was."

"Oh, my branch was pretty bi-" Eda said only to be interrupted by hearing an explosion as one of the buildings erupted into thorny vines. "Woah! The Green Cloak's here too? Come on, Luz. We won't get a better distraction than this!" Eda said, flying down.

"The Green what?!" Luz yelled as she flew after Eda, taken off guard by the sudden explosion of vines.

"The Green Cloak! She's a Demon that's been using her fists to disrupt operations in the Wonder Lumber Yard. She's probably the one responsible for the forest coming back." Eda explained as they flew down.

As they got near the compound, they found an interesting scene.

The Green Cloak was standing in the middle of the yard. A dark-furred body with a great enough muscle definition to see through the fur, her clothing only consisted of an animal fur that covered most of her chest and her hips. Around her head was her namesake, a green cloak made of Witch's Wool that only let her six red shining eyes be seen.

Standing opposite of her was Willow, casting a spell to make even more vines erupt from the ground to try and catch the Green Cloak.

The vines failed to do their job as the Green Cloak nimbly dodged them, she proceeded to deck every single guard that approached her, knocking them out with one punch before grabbing a sack from the ground and running.

Luz was getting an odd sense of déjà vu from the whole scene in front of her, or rather below her, as she felt something between Willow and the Green Cloak. She filed that away for later and looked to Eda. "So are we just swooping in and grabbing? I need to know what I'm aiming for amount wise here." She yelled, intentionally b-lining for a tree near the action.

"Swoop and Grap! Aim for a branch that's as big as you!" Eda called out as she flew down alongside Luz.

The Green Cloak was heading straight for where Luz and Eda were too, aiming to escape into the forest.

"On it!" Luz yelled, grinning as she twisted, changing her glyph up for a moment as she was pulled into it, it's design extending backward before firing her off at top speed. She shot towards a very large branch right at the exit and caught on it with a spin, right before she brought herself up and kicked onto it hard, snapping the branch off and sending her down to land right in the path of the Green Cloak, the massive branch laid on her shoulder. 

She gave a big grin at the Green Cloak, along with a wink and blowing a kiss to her. In that same motion she took the branch and made a heavy swing on a pair of guards that were trying to flank the demon.

The Green Cloak meanwhile made a dive to grab Luz, who would suddenly sense someone who she swore wasn't there a second ago. The vague outline of a Witch with a magic circle already drawn and lightning beginning to crackle out of it was just to Luz's right.

"Shit." Luz cursed as she started forming a shield glyph as quickly as she could.

The shield glyph activated but the shield wasn't forming in time as the lightning blast started cracking through it. However, the Green Cloak grabbed Luz and turned her back to the spell just in time for the half-formed shield to shatter and the lightning blast to crash into the cloak harmlessly.

The demon came out of the dive with Luz in hand and began booking it deeper into the Wonder Lumber Woods.

"Welp, I guess this is happening now-ow-ow!" Luz yelled, as she was carried off into the woods, branch thankfully still in hand.

The Green Cloak was darting through the woods, avoiding traps and pursuers with great grace and nimbleness. Finally however their pursuers lost them and the Green Cloak kept going for a bit before stopping and setting Luz down.

Luz got back to her feet and shook her head a bit. "Preciate the save, but could you work on the shocks a bit, Willow? Ugh, my head's still pounding..." She mumbled, rubbing her temples from the very bumpy ride.

The Green Cloak chuckled at that point, a deep and monstrous sounding voice. Until she pulled down her hood, revealing that it was in fact Willow. As her hood went down, the red glowing eyes, deep voice, and fur all disappeared.

"So, I'm guessing you knew it was me because of some other power you gained on your adventure?" Willow asked.

Luz grinned as she stashed away the branch for now. "Yup, Observation Haki. Let's me feel the aura of things around me and while that copy of you could fling spells, it didn't have your life energy. I'm guessing Gus is helping you with this?" She asked curiously.

"Yup. Right on all accounts except one. It wasn't flinging spells. I was the one doing it." Willow confirmed with a smile.

"Ah, fair enough, admittedly, I was distracted by sensing you in a place that you weren't." She chuckled. "Soooo, what's with the getup? Going all batman on the covens?" She asked curiously.

"Nah, just the Wonder Lumber Yard." Willow says as she leans back against a tree. "I have part of the final say in everything except the Wonder Lumber Yard. I oversee it, but I don't control it. That all goes to Belos." She says with a heavy sigh.

"So you wanted to start getting the forest to spread out again, by doing it off the record, so to speak." Luz reasoned and then smiled to her proudly. "And here I was worried you guys had lost that rebellious spirit." She giggled. "So what is the old king doing with the wood anyway? I mean he clearly lied about how overused it was being, what's his actual angle?"

Willow smiled at Luz's compliments. "Well, it wasn't a complete lie. Only like... a three-quarters lie." Willow said brushing some hair back as she remembered what happened. "I found out through a new friend of mine that the forest was being overused. What the history books don't mention was that Emperor Belos removed its caretakers and wardens. The witches who needed their staff had no idea they were overtaxing it."

Willow looked up to the canopy as she finished the explanation. "So my new friend asked me to replant the forest. But I couldn't act in the open. So I had Gus enchant my cloak."

"Oh? Who's your friend?" Luz asked very curious now,

Willow pointed up through the canopy, towards the giant tree at the edge of the forest which was visible from here. "Their name is Thanores. The first Palisman." She said with a grin. "All palismans were based off of them."

Luz blinked and looked to where Willow was pointing, before jumping up on a few branches and getting to the top of one of the nearby trees to take a look at the giant tree. She gave a whistle seeing it. It was a massive majestic looking tree, with leaves of nearly every color decorating it’s branches. Not only that, but it was also steeped in magic that was only beat out by the Isles itself. "That's a hell of a palisman, magic's practically rolling off the big guy. You said it's name was Thanores?"

"Yeah, they've got a body that wanders around the branches and base of the tree. That's what the Palismans were based off of." Willow says with a giggle as she watched Luz climbing up the trees.

"Also, you wanted to know about what Belos has been doing with the wood, right?" Willow asked.

Luz jumped back down and landed in a squat in front of Willow, catching herself perfectly despite having just free feel a good 15 ft. She nodded as she stood up. "Yup, I mean I have a theory, but I'm sure you know more than me."

"Yup." Willow said, her eyes turning downwards a bit. "The Plant Coven leader isn't supposed to know this. But I followed a shipment one time..." She said, this was a pretty heavy topic for her evidently.

"It's taken to an off site location near the left elbow." She says sniffling a bit. "Wild Witches who are too weak to pose a threat to even the low rank of the Emperor's Coven are given a life or death offer..." Her breathing starts getting a bit erratic.

Luz came over closer to her, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder. A slight squeeze to show that she was already getting a slight growth of anger just from the start.

Willow takes a moment to stabilize her breathing. "Carve Palismans or be sentenced to Petrification." She finally says. "They don't know what happens to the Palismans, as they're taken away often only minutes after they're completed. Usually by force."

She choked back some tears and continued. "They put all of that love and care into carving a Palisman... it usually takes each prisoner months to carve just one... I found the storage room, they're loaded into cages and taken away." With a shuddering breath she shook her head. "And then I saw where the Palismans go... Belos doesn't do it in front of anyone but members of the Emperor's Coven..." She's very much on the verge of tears, remembering what she saw through her hiding spot.

"You don't have to continue..." Luz's voice was calm, but a feeling of barely restrained rage could be felt from her tone. "I know what he does with them, I saw it, years ago when we tried to steal the healing hat." She'd taken her hand off of Willow's shoulder and was clutching her fight tight. Tight enough that blood actually started to drip until she unconsciously activated her Haki. 

Her fist didn't just turn black like Willow had seen before during her fight with Belos, rather a barely visible aura of purple started coming off of it. It wasn't magic though, more it felt like an extension of her arm. 

Luz raised it, about to swing on a nearby tree, before subconsciously changing direction as she didn't want to damage any of Willow's work, and created a large groove in the ground that went a few feet from herself. "Where are they." It wasn't even a question, more of a demand with the rage that Luz was feeling right now. Her eyes even glowed from a slip on the control of her own core.

"The Left Elbow is submerged in the Boiling Sea. But the facility is pretty hard to miss if you're able to travel underwater reasonably well." Willow says, wiping away the tears that formed but never fell. "Belos' agents use an Advanced Spell. It usually requires a minimum of three people to cast it due to its complexity."

"Of course it's underwater. Shit." She growled. "That's going to make things... tricky." She grumbled, already trying to think of how she could bypass that. 

It wasn't impossible, she just had to make sure not to get submerged to the point that her powers cut out.

She looked back to Willow. "Is there part of it that's under land?"

Willow shook her head. "It's kept off of the sea bed floor to prevent escape attempts by tunneling. But you could always ask Gus to cast the spell for you. He's the one who figured out the spell and cast it by himself to get me there." She explained.

"No. I can get there, I just have to be careful with how I do it." Luz said as she began casting a new levitation spell. "Tell Eda that I had something to take care of, she should be catching up soon." That was the last thing she said, before flying off to get to where Willow had said the facility was, shooting off at a much faster pace.

Willow watched Luz race off and then she realized something. "Ah, crud…” Her voice was still a bit shaky and held a tinge of worry. “I didn't get the chance to tell her about Warden Vice..." She said as Luz was barely even a dot in the distance now.


	18. The Sunken Facility

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luz finds her way into the Facility to free it's prisoners and end it's operations for good, though she finds a bit more than she was expecting beneath the waves of the Boiling Sea.

It didn’t take long for Luz to make it to the location just where the left arm started to submerge. A large beach into the waters of the Boiling Isles, it would look rather beautiful, if not for the reason why she was here. Taking a calming breath, she focused herself and expanded her senses. 

Moment’s past as she felt out her surroundings, seeming to dive them into the water itself. Deeper and deeper until she saw it, the faint aura of multiple people deep beneath the water. She opened her eyes looking towards where she sensed them and raised her hands. Quickly crafting a large shield glyph as a bubble around herself and the levitation glyph she was still on. “It’s gonna be some ways away… The auras were too faint to just be a few meters down. Let’s hope the way in isn’t filled with water, otherwise I’m in for a time.” She grumbled, shooting off and submerging easily into the vast sea of the Isles.

The Boiling Sea didn't have its name for no reason as it turned out. It was absolutely scalding down here, even through the shielding. Her shield also wasn't attuned to the water around her, thankfully she’d been through far worse. After all, nothing compared to fighting a guy whose body was literally made of magma. All she saw was a vast amount of purple all around her.

Thankfully she didn't really need to see. She was locked onto the aura signatures, and as she got closer she could sense even more of them. As well as something... else. Its aura felt like... slime and had an eerie cold feeling.

Within a few minutes and a minor detour because of a sea monster getting snippy with her, she finally found the facility. She couldn't see what it looked like exactly, but she saw the forcefield that was being maintained to keep the water from crushing the stone building.

It took some maneuvering, but finally she found her way to a moon pool below the building which seemed to be upheld by some pillars that were also siphoning magic from the ground.

She quickly made her way up, releasing the shield glyph as she rose above the water, and took a moment to take in her surroundings.

It looked... like a warehouse here. There was loading equipment, some goons were loading up crates and a couple Witches in uniforms she didn't recognize were waiting around for one of the carts to get loaded up.

One of them heard the water splashing and turned to look to the noise.

Luz smiled as she stepped onto solid ground. The smile was sweet, a sickly sweet one that made your skin almost crawl just looking at it. "Hello there, I'm sorry to say, but your little operation here has been canceled. If you'll kindly vacate the facility..." She glared. "Then I won't have to sink you with it."

One of them was looking at her with a calculating look, but the other witches shouted. "THERE'S AN INTRUDER! RAISE THE ALARM! GET WARDEN VICE!"

One demon was right next to a lever and moved to pull it.

"I guess not then." Luz said, drawing up a purple glyph with a black glow, inside was the design of a crown with a vertical open slit eye. With a wave of her hand, pressure exuded from the Glyph along with a burst of purple and black lightning. The wave shot out quickly, intended only for those that worked for the Emperor, meaning the Auras that didn't show weakened and defeated states.

Everyone in the room dropped except for the one witch that was looking at her analytically, he barely even flinched from the shockwave. He was a large demon with dark purple skin and a main of white hair coming from his head. Two sets of horns came out the top and sides of his head as he stared with Orange eyes with oval like pupils that ran horizontally within his eyes.

Luz released the Glyph and did look slightly impressed. "Won't say I'm too surprised one of you stayed standing. I'm guessing you might be this Vice one of the flunkies mentioned?"

He shook his head. His deep voice came out as he finally started moving and... began loading up the unconscious bodies onto one of the carts and unloading the crates. "Always figured someone would find this place and try to destroy it. You seem to have the power to do it. So I'll do the smart thing." He said simply.

"Smart man, do be a dear." She said, walking towards where the people that had been imprisoned here were. "And tell the Emperor he's a dick for me, alright?" She finished as she passed him, making sure to keep her senses on high alert.

"Sure thing." He says as she leaves the room.

The facility was now dead quiet as the dozens of guards lay unconscious. Through the hallways, Luz couldn't help but feel like she was being watched. That cold and slimy feeling was all around her.

It wasn't just that it was a slimy feeling, rather that it was a familiar feeling at that. Something from way back that she felt like she should be able to remember well, but it was slipping her mind at the moment.

Finally, she reached the working areas. The prisoners had gotten up from their work stations and were investigating the bodies of the guards, a couple other staff members that were too weak to get hit by the glyph's pressure were also curious about what was going on.

"Ah, I see a few more of you stayed standing then." Luz said, as she entered the work area. "Well like I told your coworkers, this facility is closed, now clear out." She ordered, creating a fire glyph and forming it into a blade of fire.

"Agh! We're just cooks! And Cleaners! Honest!" One of the workers said in fear at the sight of the fire blade.

"Wait, the prison's closed? We're able to go free?!" One of the prisoners asked. One of them was crying and holding a palisman, an unconscious guard right next to them.

"Yes, I'll be getting everyone out. Fraid this isn't something Belos will want to happen, so best to still go into hiding or the like after." She said, kindly smiling to the prisoner. "As for the staff, not planning to hurt you, get out and get out of here." She motioned for the door.

They nodded with a couple prisoners gathering the palismans they were working on. As soon as the last one left, the door suddenly sealed behind them. Leaving Luz isolated in the work room.

She looked back at the door and sighed. "Why can't it be as easy as the R&D Facility..." She grumbled, keeping on her toes.

As she looked around warily, the cold and slimy feeling got stronger and stronger, and also closer... but the aura was so omnipresent it was impossible to tell just from the aura where it was.

"How bout you stop fucking around..." She growled, shrinking her flame sword down into a mote of flame and slamming it on the ground. "And come the fuck out!" She yelled, as it expanded outward and created a large circle of flame, not burning the down guards.

As the flames died down, she suddenly felt the top of her head get touched by something very cold and very slimy. Then her mind went numb for a moment. As the feeling retreated, she could remember what the aura felt like... it was just like...

"Mija? Is that you?" She heard a voice that she hasn't heard in ages ask from behind her.

Luz's eyes shot wide hearing it, feeling her heart skip a beat, before it started beating again at a rapid pace. Slowly she turned around. "M-mami...?" She mumbled out, a part of her fighting to reason what she was about to see couldn't be real.

When she turned around, she found herself looking at the aged faced of her mother, a few lines of silver going through her hair like tinsel, crow's feet had begun to form just barely beside her eyes. It was an exact look of what Luz thought her mother would look like now.

"Is-is that really you?" She asked, her voice quivering a bit as she reached out to her daughter, taking her arm and squeezing them tightly. “Oh mija, te he echado mucho de menos ... ¿¡Dónde has estado y qué te pasó !?” She quickly held Luz close, looking awkward due to the height difference now. 

Luz had near completely frozen in the woman's grasp, not sure how to react or even feel. "I.. I.." Her words weren't coming to her at this point, there was no way this was real, no this was just like. "Grom..." She mumbled, feeling her herself start to shake. Whether due to a hidden fear of the being or a growing anger from it’s mimicking of her mother again, she didn’t know.

When she blinked, she wasn't looking at her mother anymore as she was suddenly pushed back. She instead saw a boot coming straight for her face. "Close, Noceda! But I'm not Grom." The man said with a sickeningly cocky grin.

She quickly dodged out of the way as she saw the man. "Doflamingo!?” She yelled, sure enough there now stood the 10’ tall lanky blond man, shit eating grin adorning his face and his trademarked ruby sunglasses concealing his eyes. Still dressed in the unbuttoned white dress shirt with a large pink fur coat hanging off his shoulders and pink zebra striped pants. “What the hell is going on? What do you mean you aren't... No, that's right, you aren't one of my fears... What the hell are you?" She growled recreating her fire glyph and firing off a burst of flame at him.

Doflamingo easily sidestepped her fire blast, and reacting back, firing a bit of black goo from his finger tip that turned into a string bullet, which knocked a way with a Haki covered arm. "The name's Vice... short for Viceneral, the Shame-Exposer" He said far more cockily than Luz ever recalled him being during most of their visits.

"Then you're only barely good at your job." She growled at him. "Doflamingo wasn't stupid enough to give that shit eating grin my way." She said, while pulling Witch Blade out and going in with a fast diagonal cut from the left.

Vice simply held up his hand and caught her blade. "Oh but that's just the thing. One, I'm honestly out of my element down here. Two, my strength is directly proportional to how much Regret and Shame you feel when you look at my face." He said as he held her blade in place with a good deal of effort.

"Then you picked the wrong face." She growled, a Lightning glyph forming in-between the tip of the blade and flaring to life. "My anger far out ways any regret or shame associated with that man!" She yelled, pressing down harder with the blade, Haki coating it and beginning to extend off.

"Does it though?" Vice said as he struggled underneath her blade. "How many people suffered because of your inaction? You could've saved them all and you know it!"

"You're right." She said, a clear spark of regret starting to grow. "We all knew the pain you caused, all across the Grand Line." The spark suddenly vanished as she glared at him, eyes glowing with resolve. "But we knew that things would be far worse if we jumped without being ready, ready for the war we would start with Kaido!" She yelled, pushing the blade the rest of the way and breaking past his guard to slice him in two.

"GYAGGH!!!" Doflamingo shouted in pain as his form turned into a bunch of black gunk that splattered against the wall.

But then Camilla's voice came back from the opposite side of Luz. "Ugh, see? This is why I don't like fighting directly. You hero types are too difficult to deal with! It's much easier to ruin your whole life with the knowledge I learn but THERE'S NO ONE DOWN HERE!" She shouted in aggravation.

Looking to her side, and seeing a mostly malformed version of what her mother may look like now, she raised an eyebrow. "You're a hell of a lot more talky than Grom was? So what, is this actually a 'I'm not trapped in here with you, you're trapped in here with me' situation?" She asked, almost feeling bad for the creature. Not much, just a very tiny bit.

"My sibling never bothered with talking a lot." She said as she leered at Luz with a heavy side glare. "And no. I mean that normally, I wreaked havoc by spreading the most damaging regrets and shame that I could across all of civilization, hence my name ‘The Shame-Exposer’. Unsurprisingly I was targeted by Belos pretty quickly." She said as she shifted her position to lean back against the railing.

She turned to look at Luz. "Since he likes to keep aces up his sleeve, he merely imprisoned me beneath the ocean instead of killing me. Here, I can't spread the darkest secrets of my victims and eat them when they're ostracized and mentally weakened."

"Oh you poor thing." She said, sarcasm dripping from her words. "Leave it to Belos to not finish a job and try using it for his own gain." She rolled her eyes, before focusing on her senses, attempting to find anyone else that may have been left behind or any Palismans that haven't been evacuated. If the people from before even had been.

There were just some guards left behind and... a couple of the auras behind the locked door were missing. They were trapped in that hallway!

She'd collect the guards in a minute. As much as she hated them for being okay with this, she wasn't about to let them die, and went towards the door. She raised her blade and gave two swings, cutting down the locked door with ease.

The prisoners and staff were cowering against the opposite side of the hallway, a horrifying monstrosity of mouths, mouths, and more mouths was busying itself eating one of the prisoners, a valiant Palisman trying its best to scrape and claw at the monster.

"Oops, did I forget to tell you that I can multitask, mija?" Vice said with a dark chuckle.

Luz growled seeing that. She let herself stay to focus on the monster. Worse yet, their exit had also been cut off. She could feel that the next room had been sealed off and destroyed. 

She wouldn't be able to simply make a shield bubble this time and get everyone it, she could already tell that those doors were getting close to bursting open, it seemed the field surrounding the facility was disrupted or damaged by a few that had escaped and water was starting to rush in from the Moonpool storage room. She needed to move quickly. 

"You aren't my mom. So quiet faking it." She growled as she created a glyph of lightning and cast it at the mangled form of her mother, it expanded and encapsulated the being inside before filling a small bubble with a mass of electricity.

'Camilla' screeched in agony before exploding into a mass of black gunk. She could also see the lumps that were probably the other people that had just been eaten.

"God damn it, we don't have time for this!" She yelled in frustration as she quickly went over to free them from the monster. She worked quickly, cutting those not already dead out and tossing them back into the main room she was just in. 

Something she did just in time, as the doors at the end of the hall burst and boiling water was already starting to rush in. "Shit! Gotta do this quick." She shot back into the room and quickly created an earth glyph, slamming it on the ground and causing a thick wall of stone to seal the doorway up. It wasn't perfect, as water was leaking in from the edges, but it was enough to hold back the water. 

"Any of you conscious? She asked, looking back to the people she'd pulled from the beast, having left some of it's exposed form out there.

"Yeah, we all are... eugh..." Said one of the prisoners, they were all alive, albeit covered in more than a few bite marks now.

The beast however spat the last one out when it got sprayed with water, its form starting to dissolve into the surge of water that came flowing through before Luz blocked it all off. It melded into the wall and fled the room.

"Huh, I guess even amorphous monsters can't handle hot water. Still.. There goes our exit... Shit." She growled and started trying to think of a way to get them out of here alive. 

Well she had one option, but, that still wasn't working at the moment.

"This has to be your fault in some way!" Amity's voice called to her from back at the railings. However it sounded like she was younger.

She blinked and spun around, seeing the younger form of Amity. Seeing her gave Luz two reactions. She was confused as all heck on why Vice picked this and she had forgotten how adorable Amity used to be when they were younger.

Amity stomped her foot, crossed her arms, and glared at Luz. "You damaged the prison as part of your inane plan to make sure that Belos doesn't use this place again, didn't you?!"

Luz was really confused now. "No, not yet anyway, I think that might have been the people escaping honestly. Are you really trying to shame me for planning destroying this place and maybe killing you, Vice?" She asked, squatting down and poking the fake Amity. "Cause as adorable as younger Amity is, I don't think that's really a good angle for this one. That, or you're just trying to distract me." She reasoned.

Vice shook her head. "No. You have some angst about this buried deep. Back when you first got marooned in another world. You blamed yourself for a while for getting sucked into the portal and wondered what happened." Vice said, putting a hand to her forehead.

"When you came back, some of that stuff came bubbling back up when you saw everyone inducted into the Emperor's Cult." Vice finished with a growl. "Now then, I'm going to go see if I can fix this situation you got me into and if I can't, I'm going to come back and eat you." Vice said and her form dissipated into black slime again, its form seeping through the sealed iron walls.

Luz just shrugged at that. "Okay... Well then, time to focus on getting us out of here then." She shook her head. 

She really only had one option that would be the safest. She'd need to figure out how to at least get the portal glyph working on the Isles. Not breaking any dimensional walls, no trying to get help from the other side of things. Just open one door, and make another somewhere else. 

That was it. Easy.

"I hope..." She mumbled making the portal Glyph and throwing it out. 

Much like before, it formed a larger version of itself and stuck in place, a small ripple of reality to show it was locked in space/time, with the eye firmly closed. Once that was set, she started focusing on trying to open a new one back on the beach she had submerged from. Pouring magic into it and causing it to spark as she tried to force it open.

The sparking was getting more and more intense, the boundaries of reality were fighting her hard on this. She poured more and more magic into forcing it open, when she felt the snapback coming.

Within a fraction of a second the ripple she was trying to open into a rift exploded in her face, almost sending her flying if she wasn't prepared for it.

Once the snapback went off, she quickly covered herself with her arms and Haki on her arms. "Damn it!" She yelled, once it passed and threw her arms to the side. "Why am I even having a hard time with this!?" She yelled, punching the nearby Iron wall, leaving a deep dent in it. 

She went to pull back, but found her arm stuck for a moment. With a disgruntled sigh, she started pulling her arm out, as she did so though, she started to think about something. Vice had moved through this wall as though it was nothing, something both it and Grom could do with ease. Why was that? Was it some innate intangibility, an actual magical effect, or something else?

Either way, they moved through it without brute force, there must be...

"That's it!" She yelled, as her hand popped free of the wall. "How could I be so stupid! Of course it's not going to react to force! I need to actually connect it!"

She rushed back away from the wall, ignoring the confused look of the remaining prisoners, as she remade the Glyph. 

This time however, she wasn't trying to force magic into it, rather, she closed her eyes and started focusing. Looking for one of the most important things to any world, the Ley Lines that ran across it.

She felt for them, the natural channels through which magic flows. As she focused on expanding her senses through glyph... she saw them. Strands of magic like a massive spider web, so many passed over the Titan's Bones like blood vessels.

Just a little bit more aaand... she found one nearby.

The best part was that it was also pretty close to the beach from earlier. "Okay... So now I just need to..." She mumbled, starting to attune to that spot, focusing as the Arrows on the Glyph started to spin slowly, picking up quickly as the eye started to open, until a new burst of reality came from it and the eye completely opened. 

Once it did, the whole glyph started to glow white, showing the exit on the other side. "Yes!" She celebrated and turned to them. "Okay! Everyone through the exit!" She grinned, creating a Telekinetic glyph to collect the unconscious guards and toss them through the portal as the remaining prisoners and Palsimens followed after them

As she was tossing the last few through the portal, Vice pulled itself out of another wall and reformed as Young Amity again. "Alright, I managed to shore up the breaches and reset the fie-where did all the food go?" She asked, realizing that basically everyone was gone.

After the last prisoner and palismen was through, Luz grinned from just near the entrance. "Later Vice, have fun with being alone now." She gave it a peace sign and quickly went through, the portal closing behind her.

Amity's young form melted away into a creature of black slime, roaring as it charged at Luz just as she hopped in and let the entrance close behind her.

However, there was an element to Luz's plan that she didn't consider. She was traveling through the ley lines which were attuned to their environment. These ones were traveling through the ocean. Currently she was being subject to the full unobstructed essence of the Ocean itself.

But the portal held and at the end of it, she was spat out of the exit.

She practically came catapulting out the other side, just as it closed too. It wasn't a hard throw, but in her weakened state, it hurt for sure when she fumbled out and onto the ground face first in front of the others that had come though. The most she did was give a groan when one came to check on her.

That groan was met with a couple light slaps to the back of her head. "Kid, hey kid! You awake? Groan once if you are, go terrifying silent if you aren't." She can hear Eda say.

"Uuugh. I'm fine..." She groaned, slowly pulling herself up on slightly wobbling arms and panting a bit. "Fuck... It was like running head first into Sea Prism stone..." She held her head for a moment. She then blinked to see that not only was Eda here, but so was Willow. "Hey, you two are a bit late for the fun." She said, getting to a sitting position as feeling was coming back to her.

"Had to learn the glyphs needed to save your butt, kiddo." Eda said with a grin, holding up a stack of nine glyphs.

Willow looked a bit worried as she helped Luz get steady. "So, how'd it go?"

She fully stood up and stretched. "Everyone is out but that Warden Vice. The place was about to flood, but it fixed that, so." She went back towards the shore, making sure she was looking in the right direction. "It's time to make that place unable to be used again." She stated. 

She lifted her hand and started making a large, but familiar, light glyph. Once completed, she continued, adding a new pattern of a four point star surrounding the inner design. 

Before the two could react to the change to such a basic Glyph, Luz pressed her finger onto the middle of it. 

It started to shine, a massive glint of light that was beginning to condense around her finger. Making sure to have it aimed correctly, there was a sudden sound as the light shot off towards where the Facility lay on the ocean floor. 

There was a long tense moment of confusion before a mass of light showed right underneath the ocean's surface. Followed quickly by a massive explosion, sending fire and water spraying into the sky.

“By the Titan…” Eda stated, her shock being mirrored by Willow who stood next to her. “Wh-what kind of light Glyph was that?” No matter how much experimenting they had done in the past, she’d never seen a glyph alter on such a fundamental level. 

Luz made a shield around them, to protect them from the boiling water falling down from the explosion, enjoying the fading feeling of Warden Vice’s presence as the water boiled it away. “Figured it out thanks to the constant fights I got into with a guy called Kizaru, he was able to manipulate light and use it for things like that. I just found how to alter the glyph to allow me to do the same.” She smirked. 

“Then… Does that mean?” Willow asked. 

Luz nodded. “Yeah, the Facility is destroyed and from the best I can tell, Vice along with it. Belos won’t be able to use that for making Palismens anymore. So he should be slightly crippled in a sense.” She explained. “For now.”


	19. A Necessary Conversation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As the fall of the prison comes, Luz needs to confront Amity about it's existance. Not only learning something about the Emperor's Coven, but divulging a bit herself.

It didn't take long for the group of three to return to the Owl House. Luz took the time to reflect on what happened as she approached, knowing there was something she needed to face. 

A nagging voice in the back of her mind, yelling about how she should know the answer and asking would only make things worse. Part of her hoping that she wouldn't even get the chance to ask. 

Something that was dashed quickly as they entered and found Lilith and Amity sitting in the living room and seeming to be in the middle of catching up.

Amity heard the door opening and stood up with a big smile on her face. "Luz! You're back. How'd the Wonder Lumber raid go?" She asked

Luz didn't look entirely happy to see her, looking around for a moment and even trying to feel for the Agent. 

"Hello." Willow smiled, feeling a bit awkward, due to the air that was filling the Owl House for a moment.

The agent seemed to be upstairs, still out cold from the attempted alteration earlier that day..

Amity's smile fell. "Luz, what happened?" She asked

The dark skinned woman sighed, taking a moment before meeting Amity's eyes. Her own seriousness and even a bit of sorrow filled them, as she asked the question she felt she had too. "Amity. Did you know about the underwater prison facility?" 

No dancing around it, she got straight to the point. Almost certain of Amity's coming answer as she saw Lilith's eyes widen at the question.

Amity seemed confused for a moment, and then she realized what Luz meant and she averted her eyes. "Yes... I did..."

Willow actually looked shocked at that. "Wait, you knew?" She asked.

Amity nodded solemnly. "All of the heads of the Emperor's Coven knew..."

Luz held out her hands, stopping both Eda and Willow from saying or doing anything. She felt anger rising in them, probably more so for Eda as they all witnessed Lilith looking away, not able to meet any of their eyes. 

She stepped forward slowly, passing by Amity for a moment. She seemed like she was just going to leave, not say a word further and leave things there. Unsaid, tension filled, and maybe even an amount of disgust.

As Luz passed by Amity, she flinched. She turned quickly to try and grab Luz's wrist. "Luz... it's not tha-"

Luz avoided her grasp for the moment, but did stop, cutting her off with a new question. "Do you regret it, do you regret standing by and being complacent as those people suffered in a way, that is basically like a mother watching her child ripped away from her?" She didn't turn around, she didn't ask anything more. Only waited for an answer.

Amity paused for a moment. Remembering every single palisman she saw over her years working for Emperor Belos. Her gut twisting and heart wrenching as she did so. Thoughts to her own Palismen, Azula, and what it felt to bring her to life, only to possibly be stripped away and destroyed before her eyes. She nodded. "Yes... every single time..."

It took a moment, but Amity would find Luz turned back to her, placing her hand under her chin and lifting it slowly. What Amity would see looking into Luz's eyes, not a look of anger, disgust, or even disbelief. 

No, it was a look of sorrow and understanding as she spoke. "I forgive you..." Was all she said, in the most calming tone she could right now.

Amity began tearing up, hugging Luz close and crying into her shoulder. A feeling overwhelming her as she heard the words she never even knew she needed. She was trying to say something, but her words were failing her right now. Even she didn't know what she was trying to say, other than knowing it was some kind of apology.

"Forgive her!?" Eda yelled, getting everyone's attention suddenly as she glared at the pair. Luz having started to hold Amity close. "How can you say that so easily!?" 

"Eda, please." Lilith tried to rush to her side and calm her down, only to find herself pushed away. 

Eda glared at her sister, an anger she hadn't felt towards her in a long time. "No. You don't get to say something like that, both of you stood by as that monster treated those witches like garbage and devoured things that they had to put their full soul and being into! How can you even think that of forgiveness as they stood by and did nothing about that!?"

The air was tense as Luz continued to hold Amity close, not even for a second seeming to want to let her go. 

"Because I've done the same thing." She stated, not even a hint of falsehood in her voice.

Eda blinked as she looked away from her sister. "What?" She asked flatly. Caught off guard by the idea of Luz having done something similar.

"Back on Great Blue. There was a man called Donquixote Donflamingo," She started, her own body shaking as she thought of him again. "I doubt I could call him human, he probably would deny he was one as well. He was a pirate and high level member of the worlds underground going by Joker. He ran weapons, drugs, and even slaves in his operations all across the world. Something I knew very well on what he was doing, we all did. But we didn't do anything to stop his operations." She explained, an obvious amount of disgust and regret for herself in her voice. 

"We could have." She continued after a long pause. "It would have been easy to over run his work and take him down. The Government didn't care, since they bought weapons from him and even gave him Amnesty from his own crimes. So we knew they wouldn't do anything about it unless it came to the limelight."

"But there was something else. Wasn't there?" Amity asked as she calmed herself enough to raise her head from Luz's shoulder and look at her, she had a feeling she knew where this story was going.

She took a deep breath and nodded. "Yes. As easy as it would be to take him down, he was only standing in the shadow of a bigger threat. Another Emperor of the Sea, Kaido." She explained, letting Amity go for the moment as she fully turned to Eda. 

She gave a wave of her hand as she called up an image of a massive dark skinned man with wild black hair and a pair of horns coming out of his head. He had what looked like a giraffe skin tattoo on his right left side and was absolutely huge in comparison to a mass of crazed looking minions below him. 

"He had a deal with Kaido to make artificial devil fruit's called SMILES, horrible things that I don't even want to go into right now, but that also meant he had his protection." She shook her head, wiping away the image. "As much as I doubt that Belos will acknowledge it or even come close to admitting it, right now, he knows that both of us are on equal footing. He knows that a fight with me won't end well for either side or for the Isles and as such, probably won't take action against the destruction of the Facility.” She couldn’t be absolutely sure of course, but her gut feeling was a good one on that. Belos was smart, she knew that, and attacking after losing a supply of magic wouldn’t do well for him. 

“Kaido however,” she continued, “he was a much bigger fish, bigger then we could handle and couldn't risk a war with at the time." She clenched her fists, anger and regret still seeping from her. "If we had, it may have been not only the end of us, but all of the New World as a whole. We couldn't risk that, so we stood by and let innocent people be hurt and exploited. That's the position that all of the leaders of his coven are in. That's why I can forgive her, as long as she carries regret for what she had to be complacent about."

"Not all of them." Lilith says, her voice full of regret. "Perhaps in different circumstances, I would've been more like Amity. Rebellious, angry, and wishing for something better."

She took a deep breath to steady herself for this. "When I learned of the facility, I hated its existence. But I tolerated it... in my eyes at the time, and I suspect the eyes of most of the heads, it was a justifiable cost."

"The work and sacrifice of a few to keep our Emperor at full strength." Lilith said, her eyes distant as she recalled those memories. "By the time I finally grew disillusioned with him... I'd already taken on my share of the Curse for Eda and my powers were too greatly diminished to destroy the place."

Luz looked to Lilith, unsure but understanding. "I can't say that I can forgive that... But I do get it. In a horrifying way, it could be considered better than death. Something I'm sure that many Heads before you two comforted themselves with in their own way as well."

Lilith didn't want to correct Luz's optimistic view of the previous heads of the Emperor's Coven. Not right now.

And so the room grew deathly quiet.

Eda looked around the room at all the guilty faces and huffed. "I'm going on a walk. Need to clear my head." She said, summoning her staff.

No one stopped her as she left and Luz nodded. "And I need a nap, destroying a whole facility underwater and taking on some eldritch horror takes a bit out of you." She said, managing a bit of a humorous tone as she kissed Amity's head and headed off to her room to sleep.

Once the door closed, it finally dawned on Amity and Lilith. "Wait, she destroyed it?!" Amity turned to Willow and asked.

Willow nodded "Yeah, made a huge explosion too."


End file.
